Chapter 12: - Virtual
Yugi was woken up by the sound of the shower in his en-suite bathroom.
Without even thinking he was out of bed and reaching for his Duel Disk before the events of last night caught up with him. He looked at the sofa, which was bathed in the morning light that was trickling through the window.
It was empty.
'Easy hikari, Jamie slept worse then we did last night.' Yami sent, appearing in spirit form and looking towards the shower.
"I don't blame her…" Yugi sighed, lying back down on the bed. "Yesterday was insane."
'We will stop Marik today, I swear Yugi.'
"But what if we don't draw his number next? What if…"
'Then we'll just have to trust in whoever ends up fighting him. Marik isn't invincible…'
"It just seems like it …" Yugi trailed off as the bathroom door slid open, revealing Jamie in a completely different set of clothes, a towel wrapped around her head and the Millennium Ring hanging around her neck. "How do you fit everything in that backpack?" He asked, sitting up.
"Years of practise." Jamie shrugged, tugging the towel so it came loose and let her wet hair fall over her shoulders. She ran a hand through it, "I seriously need to get my hands on some pecha berry conditioner…" She grumbled, "You ready for today?" She asked, fascinating Yugi by opening her already overfull backpack and managing to find her hairbrush without pulling everything out.
"As ready as I can be." Yugi nodded, "You can leave that towel hanging over the chair if you want."
"Thanks." She did so as he sat up, "What do you think about the match ups? You're the one everyone wants…"
"I know." Yugi sighed.
"It'll be fine Yugi, you'll win no matter who you fight." She attempted to be reassuring while wincing as she pulled the knots out of her hair, "Now I remember why I tie it back when I'm travelling." She complained.
Yugi laughed, though it was short and nervous and made Yami give him a worried look.
Jamie yawned, "Any idea what time we're going to stop?"
"No clue." Yugi shrugged as he pulled on his jacket and shoes and watched, semi-amused, as Jamie made a few adjustments to her clothes, added her gloves and belt, which held her Pokeballs and her deck box, and sorted out the Ring.
She was certainly different when she looked the part of Trainer, which she hadn't yesterday, but the Duel Disk she was adding to the ensemble looked out of place.
"What's wrong?" She asked, noting the look on Yugi's face.
"The Duel Disk…"
"Doesn't suit me, I know." Jamie sighed, "I'm a Trainer first and a Duellist second, that's the way it's always going to be, and I'd rather not wear this cumbersome thing but if Marik tries anything outside the arena, I'd rather be ready. After all Marik claims to be a Duellist."
Yugi didn't say anything, just followed the girl out of the room and along to the dinning room, where a breakfast buffet was set up.
"I'll eat with you later, I've got to feed the walking stomachs first." Jamie snorted, releasing the smaller ones, picking out food that was right for all of them and putting it in bowls on the floor to one side of the room, before gathering a small pile and heading up to the top deck.
Yugi followed. "You need a hand?"
"Oh yeah, supposed to be sticking close, huh…" Jamie snorted, amused at herself. "I could do with one, if you'll feed Iblis, I'll feed Tsunami, though to be fair I reckon I could release him into the ocean below us and he'd keep up."
"He's that fast?"
"We're not travelling particularly quickly and the water is his home." She released both Pokémon, who turned expectantly to them. "Breakfast time." Jamie snorted at the eager look on Iblis's face, "You've been spoilt at that Day Care haven't you?" She asked the Charizard, who shook his head. "Yugi's got your food." She told the Fire/Flying type and then turned to her Water/Flying type who looked at her, "And I have yours."
She gave the Gyarados the food she'd picked out and then turned to give it an appraising look. "Think you can keep up with the…" The blimp shuddered and tilted sideways for no apparent reason, making Yugi and Jamie cry out as they were thrown over the railings.
In a heartbeat Yami had taken over and had grabbed Jamie's wrist with one hand and the railing with the other, in two heartbeats Iblis had flown underneath the pair, flying upwards, allowing the pair to stand on his back, while Tsunami wrapped himself around the Duelling Platform.
"Are you alright?" Jamie asked Yami as she returned Tsunami and Iblis took them over to the lifts, which were on a diagonal and straightening out.
"Fine." Yami hissed, holding his right shoulder.
"Yami, let me look." Jamie scowled, "Can you move it?"
"We have to find out what's going on." The Pharaoh growled, showing her he could move his arm, cringing as he did so, as Jamie returned Iblis to his Pokeball and they headed down into the blimp.
"Doctor, now." Jamie glowered at him, pushing him in the direction of the infirmary.
"But…"
Just be glad that it wasn't your left arm, you'd never be able to hold a Duel Disk with a bad shoulder." Jamie pushed him into the infirmary, and then headed to the dinning hall to recall her Pokémon before racing down to the cockpit. "What the hell's going on?"
"That's what we'd like to know." Joey growled, looking around. "Jamie have you seen…"
"Yugi's in the hospital, he hurt his shoulder when we got thrown overboard just now." Jamie scowled, "Iblis saved our rears, so I want to know why we're flying so erratically."
The blimp shook again.
"Make it respond!" Kaiba snapped.
"But it's refusing to accept any of our commands!" The goon in the pilot ship growled.
They were on forced cruise control for around half an hour, by which point Yugi, who no longer had his jacket on, but had bandages around his shoulder, joined them.
"Thank you, Yugi." Jamie bowed to him.
"It's alright, really." Yugi nodded, making her smile at him.
"Thank you."
"You alright Yuge?" Joey asked.
"Doctor says I pulled a muscle, but it wasn't dislocated or anything like that." Yugi said reassuringly, "What's going on?"
"I can't regain control!" The guy in the pilot seat finally gave up as a kid appeared on screen and a huge aqua base appeared from the ocean.
"Who are you?" Kaiba growled.
"My name is Noa." The kid was smirking. "I've been observing you. I'm in control of your blimp and I'll be calling the shots around here."
"Return control to my pilot now." Seto barked.
"Always barking orders…" Noa snorted, "I'm putting an end to your stupid tournament."
Jamie was suddenly very glad that she had her Pokémon on her and she hadn't sent Tsunami to go hunting, she ran a hand through her hair as Seto and Noa growled at each other.
The blimp was forced to land on the aqua base.
"I don't like this, I don't like this at all." Jamie growled. Her eyes widened as she felt…something… in response to her thought.
"Thanks for dropping in Seto." Noa sounded irritatingly smug, as the blimp was taken down into a hanger, "Time for you and your friends to exit the blimp."
"What if we don't?"
Guns extended from the sides and pointed at the blimp. "Refusal is not an option."
"This kid's nuts!"
"You all stay here." Seto growled.
"Kaiba?" Yugi asked.
"This doesn't concern you Yugi." Kaiba glowered at him, "Mokuba, you are not to leave this ship."
"But…"
"Noa," Seto turned to the screen, "I'll be coming out alone, any questions?"
He opened fire on the ship. "Care to reconsider your position?"
"We're coming! We're coming!" Joey yelped.
"Noa, I want to check on my friend in the infirmary before I leave, is that alright?" Jamie asked, looking at the screen, her hand on the top of the Ring.
"You have ten minutes, if you do not leave the blimp in that time, I will open fire."
"Alright." Jamie nodded and turned to the others, "I'll meet you in nine minutes."
"Be careful." Yugi nodded.
Jamie raced up to the infirmary poking her head in the door. "Is Mai alright?" She asked, entering carefully and helping the Doctor pick up his things.
"No change, but she's stable, the blimp twisting didn't change anything."
"Thank Arceus…" Jamie breathed.
"Can I help you with anything?" The doctor asked.
"No, thank you. I'll be leaving now…" Jamie left, leaning against the wall outside and checking the time on her Pokenav. Four minutes… "Bakura?" She asked out loud, hand on the ring, thoughts going at a mile a minute. "Bakura?"
Something stirred again, but she didn't have time to poke it further, she had to get downstairs and down to the others.
"HAUNTER!" The ghost type decided now was a good idea to leap out at her from nowhere, Pokeball in hand.
Jamie shrieked and then swatted at the ghost type, wondering how a ghost could hold something. "Is that Flygon's Pokeball?" She asked it. It nodded. "I want you to guard the infirmary; can you do that for me?"
Haunter looked like it was considering it.
"Please Haunter? I'll let you scare Marik silly when we get back."
Haunter grinned and nodded.
"Thank you." She raced down, exiting the blimp with a few seconds to spare. "Ok, I'm ready guys."
"Mai alright?" Joey asked.
"Stable, no change." Jamie scowled, wondering if Marik was still onboard the ship.
"This way please." Noa's voice echoed around them and a set of lights glowed, leading to a passageway and into another huge room.
"Show yourself." Seto demanded as they looked around.
Jamie hung back, sticking close to Serenity.
She trusted Yami to be able to protect Yugi, Joey, Tristan and Duke didn't need protecting, and Seto could keep Mokuba safe. She didn't trust Duke or Tristan with Serenity's protection though, they were too busy trying to get her to date them and Joey was sticking close to Yugi.
Someone was laughing.
Jamie's blood ran cold. They were out numbered… possibly surrounded… this come somewhere near the top of her list of ways things could turn very bad very quickly and it wasn't a short list.
"Who are you?" Seto snarled, then his eyes widened as he saw who it was. "No, I trapped you in the virtual world!"
"I recognise them from somewhere!" Yugi yelped.
"They're the suits who tried to kill Seto and take over Kaiba Corp." Mokuba growled as the five guys in suits snickered at them, "The Big Five. Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Lector and Nesbit."
"They were hired by my step-father and were Kaiba Corp's board of directors, but that wasn't enough power for them, so they trapped me in my own virtual environment and tried to destroy me."
Jamie growled, unimpressed.
"When they lost, they were imprisoned in the virtual world instead of Seto." Mokuba explained.
"What do you want?" Yugi growled at the images of the big five.
"Revenge, revenge on Mr Kaiba and you, Yugi Muto, for trapping us in the virtual nightmare." Gansley growled.
"And how exactly do you expect to intend to do that trapped inside a computer?" Set sounded both irritated and sarcastic at the same time.
"We're going to hold a virtual Duel Monsters tournament." Nesbit said, "And when we win, we will escape with your bodies."
"Never." Jamie hissed.
"No one's taking control of my body again!" Joey shouted.
"Now to take a trip to our special virtual duelling environment!" There was an incredibly bright light and there were multiple responses, most of which seemed to involve shielding their eyes in someway, and then there was a blue tunnel and everything went black.
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Noa had several screens going at once, with various bits of data running simultaneously, absorbing all the knowledge at once.
This was the beauty of having your mind linked up to a super computer; downloading information like this was easy and already he was matching up dates and times to events around the world, including that one at 11pm BST in the south west of England.
What he was more interested in at the moment though was the data he was getting through on the group that the Big Five were introducing to the rules of his virtual gaming environment.
He knew all about Kaiba Seto and Kaiba Mokuba of course, there was no new information on them; he'd been following their actions through the Kaiba Corp mainframe so long that he could anticipate their next actions, but had been unable to interfere until now due to outside influences.
Wheeler Joseph was a wild card, there wasn't much available data on him, as Seto had considered him beneath his notice and he wasn't particularly important in business circles beyond Pegasus Maximillian's interest in the group as a whole.
Wheeler Serenity was a completely new factor in this game; he had no data on her, beyond the fact that she was Joseph's sister, and Pegasus had made a note in his systems about her operation, which had apparently been paid for by the prize money won by Muto Yugi during Duellist Kingdom.
Speaking of Muto Yugi, Noa had a lot of data on him from both Seto and Pegasus's computer systems, but from the data that Noa had stolen from Kaiba's security cameras aboard the blimp, there was much more to worry about with that teen. Noa had no idea of if it had been in defence of Francis Jamelia or whether it had been in response to Ishtar Marik's attacks on his friends, but Muto Yugi had responded in a way that the data had claimed that he hadn't reacted in almost three years.
Seto had made sure to catalogue every incident, between his first duel with Yugi up until Death-T and there had been a lot of them, which, from what Noa could gather, had only really stopped just before Duellist Kingdom and while Seto had been careful to hide all this data behind a firewall which he himself breeched rarely, it had been easy to piggy back into the system to find it from Noa's position.
Gardener Tea wasn't a particularly big issue, she was more skilled then a couple of the guys in the group, wanted to dance and beyond that there wasn't much accurate data on her. Crump thought he'd managed to pick some up, but it was wrong.
Noa, however, didn't see the need to correct him. Either the data was good enough and Crump would win, or it was Crump's fault for not coming to him and attempting to hack through the system's mainframe himself.
Taylor Tristan wasn't worth mentioning. He didn't see how even the most incompetent of Duellists would have trouble with him considering that he'd been a spectator but never a Duellist.
Devlin Duke wasn't someone he particularly wanted dragged into his plans. He was a good Duellist and a skilled Gamer. He had to be considering that he ran his own Games Company and had to keep his name up among the much better recognised names in the Duelling Circuit.
And that left Francis Jamelia.
An intermediate level Duellist who had been in Battle City, but had been unable to get enough locator cards in time, if it hadn't been for her unusual back story, Noa wouldn't have given her a second look.
Mind if it hadn't been for her unusual history she wouldn't have been aboard the blimp at all.
The Aspiring Pokémon Champion from Littleroot Town was an oddball; violent and vicious, but also caring and compassionate depending on who it was and what mood they caught her in. Seto had gigabytes and gigabytes of data on the Trainer, her skills, her Pokémon, her 'Chosen' powers, her odd DNA… all in all Kaiba Seto had not been remiss in getting her history when he had hired her to run his precious 'Day Care', a project that Noa would see continued, if only because, with the world wide incidents, it would put Kaiba Corp ahead of the whole situation.
He had decided, looking at her height, weight, skills, looks and abilities, that she would be the best bet for a body for himself.
Alright she was the wrong gender, but she was the right age, the right build, had hair that he could deal with, had powers that meant that he wouldn't have to worry about drowning and already had a well trained team of Pokémon that would answer her call alone.
And considering that Kaiba Seto would soon be controlled by his pawn and he was planning on manipulating Kaiba Mokuba's mental data, it would be easy to put Kaiba Corp in his hands. He could change the data over the moment that he was in her body, all it would take then was for 'Seto' to sign the paperwork and he had ways of making sure that happened.
And if he couldn't take her body for himself and Lector failed, Noa would just take Seto's instead and play with Jamelia's mental data, making her his obedient servant, or defeat Muto Yugi and take his body...
He had plans upon plans upon plans; Noa wasn't going to be caught short if one plan fell apart.
But he wouldn't lose.
There was a beeping sound.
The Duellists were being loaded into virtual pods, their minds downloaded…
So step one began, divide and conquer.
Where were the best places to put them in his virtual world?
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'Get up.'
Jamie groaned.
'What am I? Your alarm clock? Get. Up.'
Sapphire eyes blinked and took in their environment. "A coliseum?" She asked the voice, deciding that if she was going crazy then she might as well reply to the voice in her head.
'Don't be dense, this isn't real, it's virtual.' The voice replied as she looked around the coliseum, which looked so much like the stadiums back home that she had a sudden pang of homesickness.
"Like the duelling holograms?" She asked thinking of her foxes and how they didn't seem as real as this.
'Kind of, but the whole environment's made up of them and your virtual body has to conform to the rules of the world you've been placed in.'
"Oh." Jamie paused, it couldn't be… "Bakura?"
'Who did you think it was?'
"Figured I was going crazy." She replied, "Marik…"
'Marik banished my host, I simply retreated to the Ring.' Bakura answered.
"You can get the other you back then?" She asked, right hand going to her belt, which was irritatingly empty. "Arceus damn it, they've taken my Pokémon!" She cursed out loud.
'Virtual!' Bakura snorted at her, 'They probably didn't have time to program them into the system before they captured the blimp.'
"They've split us up."
'Divide and conquer, it's an ancient strategy.' Bakura answered, 'They'll probably go after the strongest first, Pharaoh and his host, little Yugi.'
"Then I have time to leave the stadium and find the others."
'It won't be that easy and you know it. You'd be better off waiting here. You win your match, you'll go free.'
"Yeah right, like they'll let us go. I'd rather find the others. Safety in numbers and it's worth a shot. I will not sit here like some Metapod, just waiting for the Trainer to throw the Pokeball."
'...' She sensed Bakura's feelings on the matter.
"Trainer and dragon. I don't do the sitting still and letting the bad guys get away with it. Remember? That's how I ended up here in the first place."
'Just make sure you let me assist you in anything stupid.'
"I am perfectly capable of getting out of stupid situations." She scowled, looking around and considering her options. The best bet, she decided, would be to climb up onto the lowest spectator ring and leave from one of the many spectator exits.
'This is no time to get short with me.'
"Don't you deserve it after what you threatened to do to me?" She growled as she started climbing.
'Hosts shouldn't stick their noses in where they're not wanted.'
Jamie let go, falling back onto the sand and sat exactly where she'd fallen. "What did you just say?"
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Joey groaned and stood up, taking a look at his surroundings.
He was in the grounds of a mansion of some kind and he was completely and utterly alone.
"Man, he complained, I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore." He breathed as he tried to get his bearings. "Serenity?" he bellowed, "Yugi? Tristan? Tea?"
There was no reply and Joey growled as he figured out the bad guy's plan.
"We're stronger as a team…" Joey grumbled. Of course it would make sense that an enemy who wanted to steal their bodies would take every opportunity to give themselves the advantage and this would include separating those who were good duellists away from those who… "SERENITY!" He bellowed.
His sister hadn't played any duels, she'd had it explained to her and shown as best as he and Jamie had been able to the night before her operation, but Serenity had never played a game herself.
Well the answer was simple. If she wasn't here then he was going to go look for her. No bad guy was going to stop him from protecting his little sister, no matter what it took.
He was going to make sure that he, his sister and his friends got out of here in one piece and then he was going to do something drastic to that Noa kid for trapping them in this virtual world.
He was not going to let Serenity down the same way he had let down Mai.
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Dust, dirt, rocks and gravel…
"Great, just great." Tea groaned, "No one's around."
She was walking down a canyon, in what felt like blazing sunlight, wondering what, exactly, they had gotten into this time.
"YUGI? JOEY? TRISTAN? SERENITY?"
No response.
"ANYONE?"
There was the sound of foot steps behind her.
"Hello…?" Tea turned to ask nervously.
Something huge, green and with one eye roared at her.
"Ahh!" She screamed and ran.
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Serenity was walking down the edge of the river, calling for her brother.
He had been there a moment ago, but then he had fallen into that hole, then she had fallen and then they had arrived into this weird world and…
"JOEY?"
It seemed peaceful enough and while she hoped that it was stay that way, she couldn't trust it… those creeps had said that they wanted to duel, but she wasn't a duellist, she could just about remember what Joey and Jamie had taught her, but other then that she had no idea…
How could she beat someone in a duel to stop them from stealing her body, when she hadn't played a duel in her entire life?
"Joey? Anyone?" Serenity called, watching the swans for a moment and flinching back when the spray from them landing hit her face. "That's cold… how is it cold? I thought this was all virtual…"
The swans turned towards her at the sound of her voice, but besides that, there was no reply to her calls…
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Inside the castle, not that far from Serenity's location, Tristan and Duke was discussing the best way to escape from the corridor.
Duke's was the most reasonable. Keep walking until they found a door.
Tristan, however, wanted to attempt to knock down a virtual wall with a virtual axe.
This discussion didn't look like it was getting anywhere fast.
Just like Tristan and Duke, who didn't realise it, but were trapped in a corridor that was in fact designed to loop around and around an infinite number of times, so it didn't matter how far they walked, it was all the same corridor…
"I'm telling you, our best bet would be to break out of here!"
"And how do you suggest we do that, this entire virtual world is Noa's playground! He won't have made this easy!"
"We have an axe, this is a game Duke; it has to be used for something."
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"Seto! Seto, are you alright?" Mokuba asked, shaking his brother awake.
Seto groaned and sat up, looking around at the virtual forest that they were in.
"I've been in better moods," He replied casually, "And you?"
"I'm fine, I think." Mokuba responded, "Where are we?"
"Noa's virtual world." Seto growled, testing the realness of the grass by running a hand through it. This was high quality work, even the dew felt real…
"Seto?" Mokuba asked.
"It's nothing." Seto got to his feet, "Just stick close."
"Right." Mokuba nodded and the pair walked down the mud path.
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'You alright Yugi?' Yami asked as Yugi looked around the clearing.
They were stood at the lake's edge, looking to see if their friends had been dropped anywhere nearby.
"I think so, for the moment at least." Yugi replied, "TEA? JOEY? TRISTAN? JAMIE?" He called out loud, worry gnawing at him when he had no reply.
'I'm sure they're fine.'
"For now!" Yugi replied, "What if the big five find them?"
'We'll find them Yugi, just don't panic, that's exactly what they want us to do.'
Yugi's eyes widened as suddenly a burst of water rose from the fountain and a Duel Monster was left in its place. "Here we go…"
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"Is that all I am to you? Another host?" Jamie demanded with real viciousness to her tone.
'Don't take that tone with me, you're the one who refused to return the Ring to Ryou, you're the one who was so eager to host me!'
"Because I thought we were friends!" Jamie snapped, "Should have known better then to trust a Tomb Robber."
'Friends? Friends! Like I would be friends with a mere mortal!'
"So you've been using me the whole time? Just as a potential host? Or was it another way to get 'his highness' too?"
'Like I need your help with that fool.'
Jamie snorted, "So has it all been a trick? The help? The Pokémon? Did you only save my life because it would be inconvenient if I died?"
'I saved your life because I felt like it at the time, don't count on me doing it again!'
"Fine!" Jamie stormed, staring to climb again, "But be warned, this is me officially changing my mind on allowing you to fight Yami Marik in my body to get your proper host back! You'll just have to rely on the Pharaoh!"
'Fine. It's not like you could trust a thief anyway.'
"Well I won't make that mistake again!"
'Like befriending anyone is anything but a mistake.'
"If you didn't need my help with Yami, why did you even approach me in the first place?" Jamie asked as she pulled herself into the spectator's stands and looked around for the nearest exit.
'I didn't want your help! I wanted you far far away! I didn't want you anywhere near...'
"What do you mean?"
'I didn't want you to see.'
"See? See what?"
'Gods of Egypt, you are dense sometimes.'
"Then explain. You're stuck with me for a while, so at least explain why you've been befriending me for the last few months and have been trying to push me away during Battle City…"
'I will have my vengeance. I have sought justice for five thousand years.' Bakura hesitated, 'I didn't want you getting buried in the fallout.'
"Fallout?" There was no reply though, Bakura was refusing to answer or had retreated to the Ring for the time being. "Bakura, what fallout? What could possibly be worth holding onto this much anger for over five thousand years?" No reply… "'Kura?"
She sighed, wondering if it was bad that where once she would have relished time by herself, she found being on her completely on her own, with a ghost who had decided that he no longer wanted to talk to her possibly her least favourite thing in the world…
She found the exit. "Gotcha."
To say that she was less then amused when she walked through the door and teleported back into the centre of the coliseum would be a rather large understatement.
Without even thinking he was out of bed and reaching for his Duel Disk before the events of last night caught up with him. He looked at the sofa, which was bathed in the morning light that was trickling through the window.
It was empty.
'Easy hikari, Jamie slept worse then we did last night.' Yami sent, appearing in spirit form and looking towards the shower.
"I don't blame her…" Yugi sighed, lying back down on the bed. "Yesterday was insane."
'We will stop Marik today, I swear Yugi.'
"But what if we don't draw his number next? What if…"
'Then we'll just have to trust in whoever ends up fighting him. Marik isn't invincible…'
"It just seems like it …" Yugi trailed off as the bathroom door slid open, revealing Jamie in a completely different set of clothes, a towel wrapped around her head and the Millennium Ring hanging around her neck. "How do you fit everything in that backpack?" He asked, sitting up.
"Years of practise." Jamie shrugged, tugging the towel so it came loose and let her wet hair fall over her shoulders. She ran a hand through it, "I seriously need to get my hands on some pecha berry conditioner…" She grumbled, "You ready for today?" She asked, fascinating Yugi by opening her already overfull backpack and managing to find her hairbrush without pulling everything out.
"As ready as I can be." Yugi nodded, "You can leave that towel hanging over the chair if you want."
"Thanks." She did so as he sat up, "What do you think about the match ups? You're the one everyone wants…"
"I know." Yugi sighed.
"It'll be fine Yugi, you'll win no matter who you fight." She attempted to be reassuring while wincing as she pulled the knots out of her hair, "Now I remember why I tie it back when I'm travelling." She complained.
Yugi laughed, though it was short and nervous and made Yami give him a worried look.
Jamie yawned, "Any idea what time we're going to stop?"
"No clue." Yugi shrugged as he pulled on his jacket and shoes and watched, semi-amused, as Jamie made a few adjustments to her clothes, added her gloves and belt, which held her Pokeballs and her deck box, and sorted out the Ring.
She was certainly different when she looked the part of Trainer, which she hadn't yesterday, but the Duel Disk she was adding to the ensemble looked out of place.
"What's wrong?" She asked, noting the look on Yugi's face.
"The Duel Disk…"
"Doesn't suit me, I know." Jamie sighed, "I'm a Trainer first and a Duellist second, that's the way it's always going to be, and I'd rather not wear this cumbersome thing but if Marik tries anything outside the arena, I'd rather be ready. After all Marik claims to be a Duellist."
Yugi didn't say anything, just followed the girl out of the room and along to the dinning room, where a breakfast buffet was set up.
"I'll eat with you later, I've got to feed the walking stomachs first." Jamie snorted, releasing the smaller ones, picking out food that was right for all of them and putting it in bowls on the floor to one side of the room, before gathering a small pile and heading up to the top deck.
Yugi followed. "You need a hand?"
"Oh yeah, supposed to be sticking close, huh…" Jamie snorted, amused at herself. "I could do with one, if you'll feed Iblis, I'll feed Tsunami, though to be fair I reckon I could release him into the ocean below us and he'd keep up."
"He's that fast?"
"We're not travelling particularly quickly and the water is his home." She released both Pokémon, who turned expectantly to them. "Breakfast time." Jamie snorted at the eager look on Iblis's face, "You've been spoilt at that Day Care haven't you?" She asked the Charizard, who shook his head. "Yugi's got your food." She told the Fire/Flying type and then turned to her Water/Flying type who looked at her, "And I have yours."
She gave the Gyarados the food she'd picked out and then turned to give it an appraising look. "Think you can keep up with the…" The blimp shuddered and tilted sideways for no apparent reason, making Yugi and Jamie cry out as they were thrown over the railings.
In a heartbeat Yami had taken over and had grabbed Jamie's wrist with one hand and the railing with the other, in two heartbeats Iblis had flown underneath the pair, flying upwards, allowing the pair to stand on his back, while Tsunami wrapped himself around the Duelling Platform.
"Are you alright?" Jamie asked Yami as she returned Tsunami and Iblis took them over to the lifts, which were on a diagonal and straightening out.
"Fine." Yami hissed, holding his right shoulder.
"Yami, let me look." Jamie scowled, "Can you move it?"
"We have to find out what's going on." The Pharaoh growled, showing her he could move his arm, cringing as he did so, as Jamie returned Iblis to his Pokeball and they headed down into the blimp.
"Doctor, now." Jamie glowered at him, pushing him in the direction of the infirmary.
"But…"
Just be glad that it wasn't your left arm, you'd never be able to hold a Duel Disk with a bad shoulder." Jamie pushed him into the infirmary, and then headed to the dinning hall to recall her Pokémon before racing down to the cockpit. "What the hell's going on?"
"That's what we'd like to know." Joey growled, looking around. "Jamie have you seen…"
"Yugi's in the hospital, he hurt his shoulder when we got thrown overboard just now." Jamie scowled, "Iblis saved our rears, so I want to know why we're flying so erratically."
The blimp shook again.
"Make it respond!" Kaiba snapped.
"But it's refusing to accept any of our commands!" The goon in the pilot ship growled.
They were on forced cruise control for around half an hour, by which point Yugi, who no longer had his jacket on, but had bandages around his shoulder, joined them.
"Thank you, Yugi." Jamie bowed to him.
"It's alright, really." Yugi nodded, making her smile at him.
"Thank you."
"You alright Yuge?" Joey asked.
"Doctor says I pulled a muscle, but it wasn't dislocated or anything like that." Yugi said reassuringly, "What's going on?"
"I can't regain control!" The guy in the pilot seat finally gave up as a kid appeared on screen and a huge aqua base appeared from the ocean.
"Who are you?" Kaiba growled.
"My name is Noa." The kid was smirking. "I've been observing you. I'm in control of your blimp and I'll be calling the shots around here."
"Return control to my pilot now." Seto barked.
"Always barking orders…" Noa snorted, "I'm putting an end to your stupid tournament."
Jamie was suddenly very glad that she had her Pokémon on her and she hadn't sent Tsunami to go hunting, she ran a hand through her hair as Seto and Noa growled at each other.
The blimp was forced to land on the aqua base.
"I don't like this, I don't like this at all." Jamie growled. Her eyes widened as she felt…something… in response to her thought.
"Thanks for dropping in Seto." Noa sounded irritatingly smug, as the blimp was taken down into a hanger, "Time for you and your friends to exit the blimp."
"What if we don't?"
Guns extended from the sides and pointed at the blimp. "Refusal is not an option."
"This kid's nuts!"
"You all stay here." Seto growled.
"Kaiba?" Yugi asked.
"This doesn't concern you Yugi." Kaiba glowered at him, "Mokuba, you are not to leave this ship."
"But…"
"Noa," Seto turned to the screen, "I'll be coming out alone, any questions?"
He opened fire on the ship. "Care to reconsider your position?"
"We're coming! We're coming!" Joey yelped.
"Noa, I want to check on my friend in the infirmary before I leave, is that alright?" Jamie asked, looking at the screen, her hand on the top of the Ring.
"You have ten minutes, if you do not leave the blimp in that time, I will open fire."
"Alright." Jamie nodded and turned to the others, "I'll meet you in nine minutes."
"Be careful." Yugi nodded.
Jamie raced up to the infirmary poking her head in the door. "Is Mai alright?" She asked, entering carefully and helping the Doctor pick up his things.
"No change, but she's stable, the blimp twisting didn't change anything."
"Thank Arceus…" Jamie breathed.
"Can I help you with anything?" The doctor asked.
"No, thank you. I'll be leaving now…" Jamie left, leaning against the wall outside and checking the time on her Pokenav. Four minutes… "Bakura?" She asked out loud, hand on the ring, thoughts going at a mile a minute. "Bakura?"
Something stirred again, but she didn't have time to poke it further, she had to get downstairs and down to the others.
"HAUNTER!" The ghost type decided now was a good idea to leap out at her from nowhere, Pokeball in hand.
Jamie shrieked and then swatted at the ghost type, wondering how a ghost could hold something. "Is that Flygon's Pokeball?" She asked it. It nodded. "I want you to guard the infirmary; can you do that for me?"
Haunter looked like it was considering it.
"Please Haunter? I'll let you scare Marik silly when we get back."
Haunter grinned and nodded.
"Thank you." She raced down, exiting the blimp with a few seconds to spare. "Ok, I'm ready guys."
"Mai alright?" Joey asked.
"Stable, no change." Jamie scowled, wondering if Marik was still onboard the ship.
"This way please." Noa's voice echoed around them and a set of lights glowed, leading to a passageway and into another huge room.
"Show yourself." Seto demanded as they looked around.
Jamie hung back, sticking close to Serenity.
She trusted Yami to be able to protect Yugi, Joey, Tristan and Duke didn't need protecting, and Seto could keep Mokuba safe. She didn't trust Duke or Tristan with Serenity's protection though, they were too busy trying to get her to date them and Joey was sticking close to Yugi.
Someone was laughing.
Jamie's blood ran cold. They were out numbered… possibly surrounded… this come somewhere near the top of her list of ways things could turn very bad very quickly and it wasn't a short list.
"Who are you?" Seto snarled, then his eyes widened as he saw who it was. "No, I trapped you in the virtual world!"
"I recognise them from somewhere!" Yugi yelped.
"They're the suits who tried to kill Seto and take over Kaiba Corp." Mokuba growled as the five guys in suits snickered at them, "The Big Five. Gansley, Crump, Johnson, Lector and Nesbit."
"They were hired by my step-father and were Kaiba Corp's board of directors, but that wasn't enough power for them, so they trapped me in my own virtual environment and tried to destroy me."
Jamie growled, unimpressed.
"When they lost, they were imprisoned in the virtual world instead of Seto." Mokuba explained.
"What do you want?" Yugi growled at the images of the big five.
"Revenge, revenge on Mr Kaiba and you, Yugi Muto, for trapping us in the virtual nightmare." Gansley growled.
"And how exactly do you expect to intend to do that trapped inside a computer?" Set sounded both irritated and sarcastic at the same time.
"We're going to hold a virtual Duel Monsters tournament." Nesbit said, "And when we win, we will escape with your bodies."
"Never." Jamie hissed.
"No one's taking control of my body again!" Joey shouted.
"Now to take a trip to our special virtual duelling environment!" There was an incredibly bright light and there were multiple responses, most of which seemed to involve shielding their eyes in someway, and then there was a blue tunnel and everything went black.
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Noa had several screens going at once, with various bits of data running simultaneously, absorbing all the knowledge at once.
This was the beauty of having your mind linked up to a super computer; downloading information like this was easy and already he was matching up dates and times to events around the world, including that one at 11pm BST in the south west of England.
What he was more interested in at the moment though was the data he was getting through on the group that the Big Five were introducing to the rules of his virtual gaming environment.
He knew all about Kaiba Seto and Kaiba Mokuba of course, there was no new information on them; he'd been following their actions through the Kaiba Corp mainframe so long that he could anticipate their next actions, but had been unable to interfere until now due to outside influences.
Wheeler Joseph was a wild card, there wasn't much available data on him, as Seto had considered him beneath his notice and he wasn't particularly important in business circles beyond Pegasus Maximillian's interest in the group as a whole.
Wheeler Serenity was a completely new factor in this game; he had no data on her, beyond the fact that she was Joseph's sister, and Pegasus had made a note in his systems about her operation, which had apparently been paid for by the prize money won by Muto Yugi during Duellist Kingdom.
Speaking of Muto Yugi, Noa had a lot of data on him from both Seto and Pegasus's computer systems, but from the data that Noa had stolen from Kaiba's security cameras aboard the blimp, there was much more to worry about with that teen. Noa had no idea of if it had been in defence of Francis Jamelia or whether it had been in response to Ishtar Marik's attacks on his friends, but Muto Yugi had responded in a way that the data had claimed that he hadn't reacted in almost three years.
Seto had made sure to catalogue every incident, between his first duel with Yugi up until Death-T and there had been a lot of them, which, from what Noa could gather, had only really stopped just before Duellist Kingdom and while Seto had been careful to hide all this data behind a firewall which he himself breeched rarely, it had been easy to piggy back into the system to find it from Noa's position.
Gardener Tea wasn't a particularly big issue, she was more skilled then a couple of the guys in the group, wanted to dance and beyond that there wasn't much accurate data on her. Crump thought he'd managed to pick some up, but it was wrong.
Noa, however, didn't see the need to correct him. Either the data was good enough and Crump would win, or it was Crump's fault for not coming to him and attempting to hack through the system's mainframe himself.
Taylor Tristan wasn't worth mentioning. He didn't see how even the most incompetent of Duellists would have trouble with him considering that he'd been a spectator but never a Duellist.
Devlin Duke wasn't someone he particularly wanted dragged into his plans. He was a good Duellist and a skilled Gamer. He had to be considering that he ran his own Games Company and had to keep his name up among the much better recognised names in the Duelling Circuit.
And that left Francis Jamelia.
An intermediate level Duellist who had been in Battle City, but had been unable to get enough locator cards in time, if it hadn't been for her unusual back story, Noa wouldn't have given her a second look.
Mind if it hadn't been for her unusual history she wouldn't have been aboard the blimp at all.
The Aspiring Pokémon Champion from Littleroot Town was an oddball; violent and vicious, but also caring and compassionate depending on who it was and what mood they caught her in. Seto had gigabytes and gigabytes of data on the Trainer, her skills, her Pokémon, her 'Chosen' powers, her odd DNA… all in all Kaiba Seto had not been remiss in getting her history when he had hired her to run his precious 'Day Care', a project that Noa would see continued, if only because, with the world wide incidents, it would put Kaiba Corp ahead of the whole situation.
He had decided, looking at her height, weight, skills, looks and abilities, that she would be the best bet for a body for himself.
Alright she was the wrong gender, but she was the right age, the right build, had hair that he could deal with, had powers that meant that he wouldn't have to worry about drowning and already had a well trained team of Pokémon that would answer her call alone.
And considering that Kaiba Seto would soon be controlled by his pawn and he was planning on manipulating Kaiba Mokuba's mental data, it would be easy to put Kaiba Corp in his hands. He could change the data over the moment that he was in her body, all it would take then was for 'Seto' to sign the paperwork and he had ways of making sure that happened.
And if he couldn't take her body for himself and Lector failed, Noa would just take Seto's instead and play with Jamelia's mental data, making her his obedient servant, or defeat Muto Yugi and take his body...
He had plans upon plans upon plans; Noa wasn't going to be caught short if one plan fell apart.
But he wouldn't lose.
There was a beeping sound.
The Duellists were being loaded into virtual pods, their minds downloaded…
So step one began, divide and conquer.
Where were the best places to put them in his virtual world?
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'Get up.'
Jamie groaned.
'What am I? Your alarm clock? Get. Up.'
Sapphire eyes blinked and took in their environment. "A coliseum?" She asked the voice, deciding that if she was going crazy then she might as well reply to the voice in her head.
'Don't be dense, this isn't real, it's virtual.' The voice replied as she looked around the coliseum, which looked so much like the stadiums back home that she had a sudden pang of homesickness.
"Like the duelling holograms?" She asked thinking of her foxes and how they didn't seem as real as this.
'Kind of, but the whole environment's made up of them and your virtual body has to conform to the rules of the world you've been placed in.'
"Oh." Jamie paused, it couldn't be… "Bakura?"
'Who did you think it was?'
"Figured I was going crazy." She replied, "Marik…"
'Marik banished my host, I simply retreated to the Ring.' Bakura answered.
"You can get the other you back then?" She asked, right hand going to her belt, which was irritatingly empty. "Arceus damn it, they've taken my Pokémon!" She cursed out loud.
'Virtual!' Bakura snorted at her, 'They probably didn't have time to program them into the system before they captured the blimp.'
"They've split us up."
'Divide and conquer, it's an ancient strategy.' Bakura answered, 'They'll probably go after the strongest first, Pharaoh and his host, little Yugi.'
"Then I have time to leave the stadium and find the others."
'It won't be that easy and you know it. You'd be better off waiting here. You win your match, you'll go free.'
"Yeah right, like they'll let us go. I'd rather find the others. Safety in numbers and it's worth a shot. I will not sit here like some Metapod, just waiting for the Trainer to throw the Pokeball."
'...' She sensed Bakura's feelings on the matter.
"Trainer and dragon. I don't do the sitting still and letting the bad guys get away with it. Remember? That's how I ended up here in the first place."
'Just make sure you let me assist you in anything stupid.'
"I am perfectly capable of getting out of stupid situations." She scowled, looking around and considering her options. The best bet, she decided, would be to climb up onto the lowest spectator ring and leave from one of the many spectator exits.
'This is no time to get short with me.'
"Don't you deserve it after what you threatened to do to me?" She growled as she started climbing.
'Hosts shouldn't stick their noses in where they're not wanted.'
Jamie let go, falling back onto the sand and sat exactly where she'd fallen. "What did you just say?"
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Joey groaned and stood up, taking a look at his surroundings.
He was in the grounds of a mansion of some kind and he was completely and utterly alone.
"Man, he complained, I don't think I'm in Kansas anymore." He breathed as he tried to get his bearings. "Serenity?" he bellowed, "Yugi? Tristan? Tea?"
There was no reply and Joey growled as he figured out the bad guy's plan.
"We're stronger as a team…" Joey grumbled. Of course it would make sense that an enemy who wanted to steal their bodies would take every opportunity to give themselves the advantage and this would include separating those who were good duellists away from those who… "SERENITY!" He bellowed.
His sister hadn't played any duels, she'd had it explained to her and shown as best as he and Jamie had been able to the night before her operation, but Serenity had never played a game herself.
Well the answer was simple. If she wasn't here then he was going to go look for her. No bad guy was going to stop him from protecting his little sister, no matter what it took.
He was going to make sure that he, his sister and his friends got out of here in one piece and then he was going to do something drastic to that Noa kid for trapping them in this virtual world.
He was not going to let Serenity down the same way he had let down Mai.
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Dust, dirt, rocks and gravel…
"Great, just great." Tea groaned, "No one's around."
She was walking down a canyon, in what felt like blazing sunlight, wondering what, exactly, they had gotten into this time.
"YUGI? JOEY? TRISTAN? SERENITY?"
No response.
"ANYONE?"
There was the sound of foot steps behind her.
"Hello…?" Tea turned to ask nervously.
Something huge, green and with one eye roared at her.
"Ahh!" She screamed and ran.
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Serenity was walking down the edge of the river, calling for her brother.
He had been there a moment ago, but then he had fallen into that hole, then she had fallen and then they had arrived into this weird world and…
"JOEY?"
It seemed peaceful enough and while she hoped that it was stay that way, she couldn't trust it… those creeps had said that they wanted to duel, but she wasn't a duellist, she could just about remember what Joey and Jamie had taught her, but other then that she had no idea…
How could she beat someone in a duel to stop them from stealing her body, when she hadn't played a duel in her entire life?
"Joey? Anyone?" Serenity called, watching the swans for a moment and flinching back when the spray from them landing hit her face. "That's cold… how is it cold? I thought this was all virtual…"
The swans turned towards her at the sound of her voice, but besides that, there was no reply to her calls…
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Inside the castle, not that far from Serenity's location, Tristan and Duke was discussing the best way to escape from the corridor.
Duke's was the most reasonable. Keep walking until they found a door.
Tristan, however, wanted to attempt to knock down a virtual wall with a virtual axe.
This discussion didn't look like it was getting anywhere fast.
Just like Tristan and Duke, who didn't realise it, but were trapped in a corridor that was in fact designed to loop around and around an infinite number of times, so it didn't matter how far they walked, it was all the same corridor…
"I'm telling you, our best bet would be to break out of here!"
"And how do you suggest we do that, this entire virtual world is Noa's playground! He won't have made this easy!"
"We have an axe, this is a game Duke; it has to be used for something."
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"Seto! Seto, are you alright?" Mokuba asked, shaking his brother awake.
Seto groaned and sat up, looking around at the virtual forest that they were in.
"I've been in better moods," He replied casually, "And you?"
"I'm fine, I think." Mokuba responded, "Where are we?"
"Noa's virtual world." Seto growled, testing the realness of the grass by running a hand through it. This was high quality work, even the dew felt real…
"Seto?" Mokuba asked.
"It's nothing." Seto got to his feet, "Just stick close."
"Right." Mokuba nodded and the pair walked down the mud path.
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'You alright Yugi?' Yami asked as Yugi looked around the clearing.
They were stood at the lake's edge, looking to see if their friends had been dropped anywhere nearby.
"I think so, for the moment at least." Yugi replied, "TEA? JOEY? TRISTAN? JAMIE?" He called out loud, worry gnawing at him when he had no reply.
'I'm sure they're fine.'
"For now!" Yugi replied, "What if the big five find them?"
'We'll find them Yugi, just don't panic, that's exactly what they want us to do.'
Yugi's eyes widened as suddenly a burst of water rose from the fountain and a Duel Monster was left in its place. "Here we go…"
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"Is that all I am to you? Another host?" Jamie demanded with real viciousness to her tone.
'Don't take that tone with me, you're the one who refused to return the Ring to Ryou, you're the one who was so eager to host me!'
"Because I thought we were friends!" Jamie snapped, "Should have known better then to trust a Tomb Robber."
'Friends? Friends! Like I would be friends with a mere mortal!'
"So you've been using me the whole time? Just as a potential host? Or was it another way to get 'his highness' too?"
'Like I need your help with that fool.'
Jamie snorted, "So has it all been a trick? The help? The Pokémon? Did you only save my life because it would be inconvenient if I died?"
'I saved your life because I felt like it at the time, don't count on me doing it again!'
"Fine!" Jamie stormed, staring to climb again, "But be warned, this is me officially changing my mind on allowing you to fight Yami Marik in my body to get your proper host back! You'll just have to rely on the Pharaoh!"
'Fine. It's not like you could trust a thief anyway.'
"Well I won't make that mistake again!"
'Like befriending anyone is anything but a mistake.'
"If you didn't need my help with Yami, why did you even approach me in the first place?" Jamie asked as she pulled herself into the spectator's stands and looked around for the nearest exit.
'I didn't want your help! I wanted you far far away! I didn't want you anywhere near...'
"What do you mean?"
'I didn't want you to see.'
"See? See what?"
'Gods of Egypt, you are dense sometimes.'
"Then explain. You're stuck with me for a while, so at least explain why you've been befriending me for the last few months and have been trying to push me away during Battle City…"
'I will have my vengeance. I have sought justice for five thousand years.' Bakura hesitated, 'I didn't want you getting buried in the fallout.'
"Fallout?" There was no reply though, Bakura was refusing to answer or had retreated to the Ring for the time being. "Bakura, what fallout? What could possibly be worth holding onto this much anger for over five thousand years?" No reply… "'Kura?"
She sighed, wondering if it was bad that where once she would have relished time by herself, she found being on her completely on her own, with a ghost who had decided that he no longer wanted to talk to her possibly her least favourite thing in the world…
She found the exit. "Gotcha."
To say that she was less then amused when she walked through the door and teleported back into the centre of the coliseum would be a rather large understatement.