Chapter 7: - And So It Starts
The sun was rising over Domino as Jamie took to the skies for the last time before the Tournament started.
She was actually out looking for trouble, as requested by her boss, Seto Kaiba, but she didn't really expect anyone to be moving yet. Neither of the two trouble making groups were particularly stupid, and it wouldn't be very smart to be moving around and causing trouble before the Duellists were up and about and looking for battles.
"Izard!"
She looked down over her Pokemon's left shoulder, and smiled slightly as she saw a crowd gathering already, the boys would be there soon, and she'd join them once she was changed, having no great urge to spend the day in her flight suit.
"It'll be us down there soon, Iblis." She said, "We just need to over fly the docks and we'll be done."
"Izard!" The huge red dragonlike Pokemon turned in mid air, swooping in the morning air and beating his wings hard to reach the docks quickly. Jamie knew this wasn't his favourite time of day to fly, the weather promised to be warm and gorgeous, and the thermals later would make flying easy, but unfortunately for them, by the time the thermals were that good Jamie would be all tied up in the Tournament.
The docks were clear, it looked like the shippers weren't around yet, crates and cranes just lying around, there was no sign of anyone, just a couple of fishermen, including some odd guy in blue who was taking an early morning swim.
She would have swooped down and checked on the warehouses , but her Poketech alarm went off, warning her that if she didn't head back to get changed now, she'd be late.
"To the Game Shop Iblis, it's time to go Galactic hunting."
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Yugi was worried.
It was five minutes from the start of Battle City and neither Joey or Jamie were here yet.
He knew Jamie was busy with her over flight, but she should have been here by now and Joey had left a good half hour before he had, they should have been here by now.
Yami was pacing, stopping for a minute to look at the clock, and then resuming his watchful gaze over the competitors.
Neither of them had been happy for Jamie to go out this morning, she'd promised she'd meet them ten minutes before the tournament started, having been 'requested' to do an over flight of Domino by her boss and they'd wanted Joey to sleep over last night, but Joey hadn't, since he'd wanted to spend some more time with Serenity.
"Yugi!" Yami wheeled around sharply, then grinned, "I knew you'd be here."
"Hello Mai, ready for the Tournament."
Mai just snorted at the stupid question, "You sense it don't you?"
Yami's smile vanished, "None of these Duellists are to be taken lightly."
"They wouldn't be in the Tournament if they could be." Mai pointed out.
"True. It's going to be challenging." Yami agreed, his next few words cut off by the noisy arrival of a Charizard who landed just feet from them.
The girl who dismounted looked a little rushed, Duel Disk on one arm and belt with Pokeballs at her waist.
Mai examined her as she returned her creature to it's ball and joined Yugi, bowing to Mai and offering her hand, "Hi Yugi." She nodded to him first. "I'm Jamie Francis."
"Mai Valentine." Mai shook her hand, examining the young teen. She had to be younger then Yugi and Joey, but Mai wasn't sure by how much, or where the girl fit in in the group, since she hadn't been at Duellist Kingdom, then she paused. "You're the kid who works for Kaiba, right?"
"That's right." Jamie nodded. "I look after the Pokemon belonging to Kaiba Corp."
Further discussion was terminated as Kaiba appeared on the big screen and announced the timings.
They had five minutes before the Duels started.
There was still no sign of Joey.
"You'll be careful, won't you?" Yami asked Jamie, sensing Yugi's worry over what Jamie was planning to do during the Tournament.
"I could ask you the same thing. You have my Pokegear number, right?"
It was weird, but the Pokegear seemed to be able to access the Kaiba Corp network. Of course, they weren't aware that this was because when they'd had Jamie leave some of her stuff with them to help them with some research for their new game, they'd hacked into the software and modified the settings until it had.
"No mobile phone." Yami pointed out.
"You have payphones, right?"
Yami snorted and nodded.
"Be careful."
"You too."
Jamie took off in the direction that most of the crowd was heading, and Mai turned to Yami, "What was that about?"
"Oi!" The two wheeled around to see Joey glaring at a guy sat at a table, "I want a rematch!"
Yami quickly examined the guy and growled at what he saw.
"Yugi, I'll see you later." Mai said, wondering what the deal was but wanting to get to a good spot before the battles started.
Yami nodded and ran over to Joey's side. "You alright?"
"That guy jumped me was a couple of Team Galactic members and took my Red Eyes!"
"What? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, Kaida needs some rest but I recalled her before she was too badly injured." Joey growled, "Hey! I'm talking to you!" He snapped at the guy in the robe who stood up.
"You have nothing of interest to me." The guy snorted, "We Rare Hunters are only interested in the Rarest cards."
"Then I'll fight you." Yami said, deciding on the spot, "As soon as the horns blare. If I win, you'll give me Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon."
"Hmmm." The guy examined Yugi for a moment, "And in exchange, if you lose, I'm taking your Dark Magician."
"Yuge, no, I can't let you risk your Dark Magician."
"I've already made up my mind Joey."
Joey frowned. "Alright." He stepped away as the horns blared.
Battle City had begun.
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"Hey, you!"
Jamie paused and turned to look at the one calling her, it was a kid, about her age, but he was in the robes of one of them.
"I have a name." Jamie wasn't whether to go before her belt or her deck.
"Yeah, it's not important." The kid shrugged it off, You have something I want."
"My Pokemon or my cards?" Jamie snorted, "I doubt I have anything of interest to you in my intermediate level deck, so it must be my Pokemon."
"Actually, my friend here," He waved towards the shadows of a near by alley, where a Team Galactic member was hiding, "Is after your Pokemon, including that Dragon your friend escaped with this morning. I'm after your Queen of Foxes."
"I don't…" Jamie paused as a memory flashed by, and she smirked, "You do realise there's no way I'm handing over Seven Tail Fox."
"You have to, when you lose, by the rules laid down by your boss."
"I've been training with the King of Games, I won't lose."
"Then you accept my challenge?"
"It's time to Duel."
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"All these cards are marked!" Yami snarled, silently thanking the Gods that they hadn't had Joey's Red Eyes long enough to soil it with their dirty tricks.
He was a cheat!" Joey could well understand his friend's rage, as Yami tore up the marked cards, cheating was something a true Duellist would never do, and it angered everyone when people won Duels against true Duellists by cheating.
"Not anymore." Yami said, as he tossed up the torn cards into the air, letting them get scattered by the wind.
"I lost… I failed…" The Rare Hunter was talking to himself as he got to his feet, pleading with his 'Master' for forgiveness. Finally screaming as the Millennium Symbol appeared on his forehead. "We meet again Pharaoh." The voice no longer belonged just to the Rare Hunter in front of them, there was another, deeper and infinitely more dangerous voice there too. "Remember me, Pharaoh?" 'He' asked, then 'his' voice took on a more mocking tone, "Actually perhaps you don't, you were trapped in the Puzzle when I Duelled little Yugi."
Yami growled, remembering just how close he'd come to losing Yugi that day, and now he was speaking with the man responsible, through his minion.
"Congratulations on defeating my minion, though he was the weakest Duellist in my group. My other minions will prove much more formidable."
"Yuge, what is with this freak show?" Joey asked, Yami didn't answer, wanting answers himself.
"Pharaoh, I've waited for you for years, finally, after all this time I will destroy you."
Yami found himself with a Joey between him and the Rare Hunter before either of them really thought about it, Joey reaching for his back pocket where he'd stashed Kaida's Pokeball after the escape this morning.
"I won't allow my other Rare Hunters to fail me like this one did. I have little time for his kind of foolishness so I have taken over his body and trapped his mind in the Shadow Realm. I am in control." Saying this, the one in control had the guy some really freaky dance and then face them again.
"How do you control him?" Yami asked, hoping Yugi's guess about the guy's Millennium Item was wrong.
"Each of the Millennium Items contains it's own unique powers, so Mind Control is a simple task with my Millennium Rod."
"No good can come of that power." Yami growled, as Joey retreated slightly, knowing that no matter how strong his Dragon type was, when it came to a battle of Millennium Items, Yugi would have more luck then he would. "He must be the great evil Isuzu spoke about." Yugi said, though he was more thinking out loud then talking to Yami.
"Allow me to introduce myself, remember my name. Marik."
"Marik." Yami repeated, disliking the taste of the name on his tongue, "What is it you want from me, Marik?"
"I want what belongs to me and I'll take it using the strength of the Egyptian God Cards."
"Egyptian What?"
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"You should give up now girl, you have five hundred life points left, there's no way you can turn this around now."
Jamie looked from her hand to the field and understood him to be correct, she couldn't win with the cards she had now, but it was her turn and her turn to draw…
What was it Yugi had taught her? Believe in her deck, like she did in her Pokemon and it would never let her down…
"Please, help me." She whispered as she drew. Then a calm smile graced her featured, "It's not me the Sun is setting on." Jamie grinned at her opponent, "I set a card face down, and I end my turn."
"You can't win." The Rare Hunter grinned, "You have no monsters on the field and only two cards face down on the field, I summon Gearfried, the Iron Knight and attack you, with Warrior Dei Grepher!"
The huge warrior monster attacked.
"I activate Waboku!"
"Activate Dust Tornado!"
Her Waboku was blown away and the attack continued.
"Setting Sun!" Jamie bellowed as the attack struck home.
Everything on the field exploded as the sun suddenly set in the sky above them.
"I can't believe you fell for that!" Jamie laughed in relief and delight, "Waboku was a decoy for me to find out if it was safe for me to use Setting Sun!"
"What does it do?"
"Destroys every card on the field." Jamie said. Now I just need a bit of sheer dumb luck.
"Fine, it's your move."
Please, please, please, please… "Yes!" Jamie cheered, "Activate Reincarnate Fox Spirit!"
"What?"
Jamie's Third Eye Fox, a Light attribute, Beast/Effect card, it's pinky purple fur shining in the light, returned to the field from the Graveyard.
"How? I destroyed that fox!"
"Reincarnate Fox Spirit allows me to bring back one fox card from the Graveyard, and I choose the most powerful I have that has been destroyed, he can gain 1000 attack points during the Battle Phase, and I chose to activate this power, and attack you directly!"
The Rare Hunter back stepped, as Third Eye Fox grew to 3600, and launched a blast of psychic energy straight at him and his 3200 life points.
He hit zero and fell over backwards.
The holograms faded, including the fake sunset, as he sat up. "I…I lost."
"Hand over your Map Card, and your rarest."
"I…can't lose." Jamie stiffened as the Team Galactic grunt stepped out of the shade, "If Master finds out…"
"Hand them over." Jamie insisted, reaching for her Pokeballs. "And I have a bone to pick with you." She glared at the Grunt.
"The Boss said you'd be around." The Grunt glared back, "In fact he had a bet on with our new ally that you'd be out hunting us." She booted her 'ally', "Hand 'em over, I want a shot at her."
"Not here." Jamie said quickly, "There's too many people."
The Grunt smirked, as his 'ally' grumbled and handed her the cards, one map card and Belial – Marquis of Darkness, a Fiend/Effect, Dark Attribute monster with 2800/2400 and 8 stars.
"I'm Galactic Grunt Roslie, I challenge you to a Pokemon Battle," The grunt said, "As an Aspiring Champion, you have to accept."
"I'm Jamelia Francis, Aspiring Champion of the Sinnoh League, I accept your challenge, but I refuse to battle where we could hurt innocent people."
"Then let's move to the park."
"No." Jamie shook her head, "There are too many Duellists around." She looked around, growling as she saw people gathering, waiting for something else. "Everyone move back, if you want another show you're about to get it, but only if you move to the sides of the street."
They moved alright, quickly and with a little fear. There had been many Pokemon Battles since the Trainers had been dumped in this world by Palkia's Spacial Rends, and there had been injuries when there had been no one to protect those who didn't have Pokemon.
"How many?"
"I have two Pokemon, that Dragonair you gave away was mine."
"Was is the operative." Jamie snarled, "When that Pokemon came to me, she was scared of humans and in bad condition, Joey's a million times better then you as a Trainer for Kaida, and he doesn't even have his licence!"
"Go, Seviper!" Roslie snarled, throwing out her Pokeball.
Jamie pulled out her Pokedex, and pointed it at the serpent, "Seviper." It said, "The Fang Snake Pokemon, for many generations it had feuded with ZANGOOSE. It whets it's bladed tail on rocks for battle."
"A serpent, huh?" Jamie asked, "Then let's go, Shade!"
The huge black, Bite Pokemon, appeared with a Howl. "We're not afraid of you."
"Then let battle begin! Seviper, Poison Tail!"
"Shade! Agility, then Dark Pulse!"
The canine dodged, then unleashed a wave of dark energy that slammed into the snake, knocking it backwards.
"Toxic! Poison Tail!"
"Agility! Take Down!"
Shade dove under the poison and slammed into the snake, but was clobbered by it's tail, wounding the canine's leg and knocking out the snake.
"One down." Jamie snarled, "Shade, return and rest!"
The Mightyena barked in surprise, but vanished into his Pokeball.
"Afraid?" Roslie smirked.
"No way." Jamie laughed, "Next?"
"Go! Drapion!"
The huge Poison/Dark scorpion appeared.
"Go, Iblis!"
The Charizard roared and used Flamethrower, straight up in the air.
"Cross Poison!"
"Fly!"
Iblis easily avoided the attack by taking off. Drapion was heavy and slow, it was no match in speed and agility for the lighter and faster Fire/Flying type.
"Pin Missile!"
"Flamethrower!"
The pin missile hit, but was shrugged off, the Bug type attack not even making the Charizard flinch. Drapion, however, looked chargrilled when the attack died.
"Poison Fang!"
"But it won't hit…" Jamie screeched as Drapion moved surprisingly quickly, and bit into her arm.
Iblis roared, outraged, and blasted the Drapion with Fire Blast, causing it to let go and be blasted back into its Trainer, who was chargrilled along with it.
Jamie knelt, holding her bleeding arm, trying not to whimper with the pain. Iblis chased the Grunt and Rare Hunter away as a couple of crowd members closed in.
"Are you ok Miss?"
"Just… just need a bandage." Jamie said, feeling slightly light headed, but attempting to shake it off, "Once I've bandaged up my arm, I have to go after them."
"You should go to hospital."
"No!" Jamie felt a bit better, or so she told herself. "I've got to stop them."
"Go to the hospital." One of the crowd members said, "Surely you can spare the time, the Tournament's finals aren't till…"
"No." Jamie pulled her black backpack off of her back and dug out her first aid kit, "I just knew I'd need this." She bandaged up her arm and dug through a small pocket of her backpack. "Damn, I thought I had more then one of those left…"
"Anything we can get you?"
"No, just a berry for my Pokemon." Jamie said, holding up a Pecha Berry, small and pink, sending out her Mightyena, who was a little unsteady but still on his feet. "Here, eat up and we'll go hunting."
"Ena!" Shade roared, and after eating the berry, roared at Iblis, who swooped down and scooped Jamie up, startling the Trainer, and following the canine from the ground.
"Iblis, I'm not an invalid!" Jamie protested.
"Izard! Char! IzardChar!"
"I'm being careful, I'm fine!"
"Izard!"
"Fine, I promise I'll get myself checked over. Tomorrow."
"Izard!"
"I wasn't poisoned."
"Zard."
"No I wasn't. I'm fine aren't I? I'm not sick."
"Izard Zard!"
"I promise I'll get myself checked over if I feel sick."
"Zard."
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"Man that was weird, I knew that guy was a big creep, but who knew he was just a front for an even bigger creep?" Joey asked, once the Rare Hunter Marik was speaking through collapsed.
"Here you go Joey." Yami offered the teen back his Red Eyes Black Dragon.
"Na Yuge." Joey declined, citing wanting to have Yugi's back for a change as the reason for not taking back his best and favourite card, "And any way," He said, "I have a Dragon at my back. You should have one too."
"Thank you Joey." Yami smiled, "Actually we both have at least one Dragon at our back."
Joey laughed, "I wouldn't say that to her face. Between us, we'll whup this Marik creep and his Rare Hunter goon squad so hard they won't know what hit them, they'll be sorry they ever decided to mess with us."
"You're a true friend Joey, and together we'll be able to defeat any evil that comes our way."
"All right, which of you Duellists wants a piece?" Joey asked turning and challenging all of Battle City, arms raised, though there wasn't really anyone around to hear. No one wanted to be the next victim… sorry, opponent… of the King of Games. "Just step up so Joey can knock ya down!"
The two friends split up, going in different directions.
"Watch yourself Marik." Joey thought as he walked away without looking back, "Yugi and I are gunna be trailing you every step of the way, the Rare Hunters have become the Rare Hunted."
She was actually out looking for trouble, as requested by her boss, Seto Kaiba, but she didn't really expect anyone to be moving yet. Neither of the two trouble making groups were particularly stupid, and it wouldn't be very smart to be moving around and causing trouble before the Duellists were up and about and looking for battles.
"Izard!"
She looked down over her Pokemon's left shoulder, and smiled slightly as she saw a crowd gathering already, the boys would be there soon, and she'd join them once she was changed, having no great urge to spend the day in her flight suit.
"It'll be us down there soon, Iblis." She said, "We just need to over fly the docks and we'll be done."
"Izard!" The huge red dragonlike Pokemon turned in mid air, swooping in the morning air and beating his wings hard to reach the docks quickly. Jamie knew this wasn't his favourite time of day to fly, the weather promised to be warm and gorgeous, and the thermals later would make flying easy, but unfortunately for them, by the time the thermals were that good Jamie would be all tied up in the Tournament.
The docks were clear, it looked like the shippers weren't around yet, crates and cranes just lying around, there was no sign of anyone, just a couple of fishermen, including some odd guy in blue who was taking an early morning swim.
She would have swooped down and checked on the warehouses , but her Poketech alarm went off, warning her that if she didn't head back to get changed now, she'd be late.
"To the Game Shop Iblis, it's time to go Galactic hunting."
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Yugi was worried.
It was five minutes from the start of Battle City and neither Joey or Jamie were here yet.
He knew Jamie was busy with her over flight, but she should have been here by now and Joey had left a good half hour before he had, they should have been here by now.
Yami was pacing, stopping for a minute to look at the clock, and then resuming his watchful gaze over the competitors.
Neither of them had been happy for Jamie to go out this morning, she'd promised she'd meet them ten minutes before the tournament started, having been 'requested' to do an over flight of Domino by her boss and they'd wanted Joey to sleep over last night, but Joey hadn't, since he'd wanted to spend some more time with Serenity.
"Yugi!" Yami wheeled around sharply, then grinned, "I knew you'd be here."
"Hello Mai, ready for the Tournament."
Mai just snorted at the stupid question, "You sense it don't you?"
Yami's smile vanished, "None of these Duellists are to be taken lightly."
"They wouldn't be in the Tournament if they could be." Mai pointed out.
"True. It's going to be challenging." Yami agreed, his next few words cut off by the noisy arrival of a Charizard who landed just feet from them.
The girl who dismounted looked a little rushed, Duel Disk on one arm and belt with Pokeballs at her waist.
Mai examined her as she returned her creature to it's ball and joined Yugi, bowing to Mai and offering her hand, "Hi Yugi." She nodded to him first. "I'm Jamie Francis."
"Mai Valentine." Mai shook her hand, examining the young teen. She had to be younger then Yugi and Joey, but Mai wasn't sure by how much, or where the girl fit in in the group, since she hadn't been at Duellist Kingdom, then she paused. "You're the kid who works for Kaiba, right?"
"That's right." Jamie nodded. "I look after the Pokemon belonging to Kaiba Corp."
Further discussion was terminated as Kaiba appeared on the big screen and announced the timings.
They had five minutes before the Duels started.
There was still no sign of Joey.
"You'll be careful, won't you?" Yami asked Jamie, sensing Yugi's worry over what Jamie was planning to do during the Tournament.
"I could ask you the same thing. You have my Pokegear number, right?"
It was weird, but the Pokegear seemed to be able to access the Kaiba Corp network. Of course, they weren't aware that this was because when they'd had Jamie leave some of her stuff with them to help them with some research for their new game, they'd hacked into the software and modified the settings until it had.
"No mobile phone." Yami pointed out.
"You have payphones, right?"
Yami snorted and nodded.
"Be careful."
"You too."
Jamie took off in the direction that most of the crowd was heading, and Mai turned to Yami, "What was that about?"
"Oi!" The two wheeled around to see Joey glaring at a guy sat at a table, "I want a rematch!"
Yami quickly examined the guy and growled at what he saw.
"Yugi, I'll see you later." Mai said, wondering what the deal was but wanting to get to a good spot before the battles started.
Yami nodded and ran over to Joey's side. "You alright?"
"That guy jumped me was a couple of Team Galactic members and took my Red Eyes!"
"What? Are you alright?"
"Yeah, Kaida needs some rest but I recalled her before she was too badly injured." Joey growled, "Hey! I'm talking to you!" He snapped at the guy in the robe who stood up.
"You have nothing of interest to me." The guy snorted, "We Rare Hunters are only interested in the Rarest cards."
"Then I'll fight you." Yami said, deciding on the spot, "As soon as the horns blare. If I win, you'll give me Joey's Red Eyes Black Dragon."
"Hmmm." The guy examined Yugi for a moment, "And in exchange, if you lose, I'm taking your Dark Magician."
"Yuge, no, I can't let you risk your Dark Magician."
"I've already made up my mind Joey."
Joey frowned. "Alright." He stepped away as the horns blared.
Battle City had begun.
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"Hey, you!"
Jamie paused and turned to look at the one calling her, it was a kid, about her age, but he was in the robes of one of them.
"I have a name." Jamie wasn't whether to go before her belt or her deck.
"Yeah, it's not important." The kid shrugged it off, You have something I want."
"My Pokemon or my cards?" Jamie snorted, "I doubt I have anything of interest to you in my intermediate level deck, so it must be my Pokemon."
"Actually, my friend here," He waved towards the shadows of a near by alley, where a Team Galactic member was hiding, "Is after your Pokemon, including that Dragon your friend escaped with this morning. I'm after your Queen of Foxes."
"I don't…" Jamie paused as a memory flashed by, and she smirked, "You do realise there's no way I'm handing over Seven Tail Fox."
"You have to, when you lose, by the rules laid down by your boss."
"I've been training with the King of Games, I won't lose."
"Then you accept my challenge?"
"It's time to Duel."
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"All these cards are marked!" Yami snarled, silently thanking the Gods that they hadn't had Joey's Red Eyes long enough to soil it with their dirty tricks.
He was a cheat!" Joey could well understand his friend's rage, as Yami tore up the marked cards, cheating was something a true Duellist would never do, and it angered everyone when people won Duels against true Duellists by cheating.
"Not anymore." Yami said, as he tossed up the torn cards into the air, letting them get scattered by the wind.
"I lost… I failed…" The Rare Hunter was talking to himself as he got to his feet, pleading with his 'Master' for forgiveness. Finally screaming as the Millennium Symbol appeared on his forehead. "We meet again Pharaoh." The voice no longer belonged just to the Rare Hunter in front of them, there was another, deeper and infinitely more dangerous voice there too. "Remember me, Pharaoh?" 'He' asked, then 'his' voice took on a more mocking tone, "Actually perhaps you don't, you were trapped in the Puzzle when I Duelled little Yugi."
Yami growled, remembering just how close he'd come to losing Yugi that day, and now he was speaking with the man responsible, through his minion.
"Congratulations on defeating my minion, though he was the weakest Duellist in my group. My other minions will prove much more formidable."
"Yuge, what is with this freak show?" Joey asked, Yami didn't answer, wanting answers himself.
"Pharaoh, I've waited for you for years, finally, after all this time I will destroy you."
Yami found himself with a Joey between him and the Rare Hunter before either of them really thought about it, Joey reaching for his back pocket where he'd stashed Kaida's Pokeball after the escape this morning.
"I won't allow my other Rare Hunters to fail me like this one did. I have little time for his kind of foolishness so I have taken over his body and trapped his mind in the Shadow Realm. I am in control." Saying this, the one in control had the guy some really freaky dance and then face them again.
"How do you control him?" Yami asked, hoping Yugi's guess about the guy's Millennium Item was wrong.
"Each of the Millennium Items contains it's own unique powers, so Mind Control is a simple task with my Millennium Rod."
"No good can come of that power." Yami growled, as Joey retreated slightly, knowing that no matter how strong his Dragon type was, when it came to a battle of Millennium Items, Yugi would have more luck then he would. "He must be the great evil Isuzu spoke about." Yugi said, though he was more thinking out loud then talking to Yami.
"Allow me to introduce myself, remember my name. Marik."
"Marik." Yami repeated, disliking the taste of the name on his tongue, "What is it you want from me, Marik?"
"I want what belongs to me and I'll take it using the strength of the Egyptian God Cards."
"Egyptian What?"
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"You should give up now girl, you have five hundred life points left, there's no way you can turn this around now."
Jamie looked from her hand to the field and understood him to be correct, she couldn't win with the cards she had now, but it was her turn and her turn to draw…
What was it Yugi had taught her? Believe in her deck, like she did in her Pokemon and it would never let her down…
"Please, help me." She whispered as she drew. Then a calm smile graced her featured, "It's not me the Sun is setting on." Jamie grinned at her opponent, "I set a card face down, and I end my turn."
"You can't win." The Rare Hunter grinned, "You have no monsters on the field and only two cards face down on the field, I summon Gearfried, the Iron Knight and attack you, with Warrior Dei Grepher!"
The huge warrior monster attacked.
"I activate Waboku!"
"Activate Dust Tornado!"
Her Waboku was blown away and the attack continued.
"Setting Sun!" Jamie bellowed as the attack struck home.
Everything on the field exploded as the sun suddenly set in the sky above them.
"I can't believe you fell for that!" Jamie laughed in relief and delight, "Waboku was a decoy for me to find out if it was safe for me to use Setting Sun!"
"What does it do?"
"Destroys every card on the field." Jamie said. Now I just need a bit of sheer dumb luck.
"Fine, it's your move."
Please, please, please, please… "Yes!" Jamie cheered, "Activate Reincarnate Fox Spirit!"
"What?"
Jamie's Third Eye Fox, a Light attribute, Beast/Effect card, it's pinky purple fur shining in the light, returned to the field from the Graveyard.
"How? I destroyed that fox!"
"Reincarnate Fox Spirit allows me to bring back one fox card from the Graveyard, and I choose the most powerful I have that has been destroyed, he can gain 1000 attack points during the Battle Phase, and I chose to activate this power, and attack you directly!"
The Rare Hunter back stepped, as Third Eye Fox grew to 3600, and launched a blast of psychic energy straight at him and his 3200 life points.
He hit zero and fell over backwards.
The holograms faded, including the fake sunset, as he sat up. "I…I lost."
"Hand over your Map Card, and your rarest."
"I…can't lose." Jamie stiffened as the Team Galactic grunt stepped out of the shade, "If Master finds out…"
"Hand them over." Jamie insisted, reaching for her Pokeballs. "And I have a bone to pick with you." She glared at the Grunt.
"The Boss said you'd be around." The Grunt glared back, "In fact he had a bet on with our new ally that you'd be out hunting us." She booted her 'ally', "Hand 'em over, I want a shot at her."
"Not here." Jamie said quickly, "There's too many people."
The Grunt smirked, as his 'ally' grumbled and handed her the cards, one map card and Belial – Marquis of Darkness, a Fiend/Effect, Dark Attribute monster with 2800/2400 and 8 stars.
"I'm Galactic Grunt Roslie, I challenge you to a Pokemon Battle," The grunt said, "As an Aspiring Champion, you have to accept."
"I'm Jamelia Francis, Aspiring Champion of the Sinnoh League, I accept your challenge, but I refuse to battle where we could hurt innocent people."
"Then let's move to the park."
"No." Jamie shook her head, "There are too many Duellists around." She looked around, growling as she saw people gathering, waiting for something else. "Everyone move back, if you want another show you're about to get it, but only if you move to the sides of the street."
They moved alright, quickly and with a little fear. There had been many Pokemon Battles since the Trainers had been dumped in this world by Palkia's Spacial Rends, and there had been injuries when there had been no one to protect those who didn't have Pokemon.
"How many?"
"I have two Pokemon, that Dragonair you gave away was mine."
"Was is the operative." Jamie snarled, "When that Pokemon came to me, she was scared of humans and in bad condition, Joey's a million times better then you as a Trainer for Kaida, and he doesn't even have his licence!"
"Go, Seviper!" Roslie snarled, throwing out her Pokeball.
Jamie pulled out her Pokedex, and pointed it at the serpent, "Seviper." It said, "The Fang Snake Pokemon, for many generations it had feuded with ZANGOOSE. It whets it's bladed tail on rocks for battle."
"A serpent, huh?" Jamie asked, "Then let's go, Shade!"
The huge black, Bite Pokemon, appeared with a Howl. "We're not afraid of you."
"Then let battle begin! Seviper, Poison Tail!"
"Shade! Agility, then Dark Pulse!"
The canine dodged, then unleashed a wave of dark energy that slammed into the snake, knocking it backwards.
"Toxic! Poison Tail!"
"Agility! Take Down!"
Shade dove under the poison and slammed into the snake, but was clobbered by it's tail, wounding the canine's leg and knocking out the snake.
"One down." Jamie snarled, "Shade, return and rest!"
The Mightyena barked in surprise, but vanished into his Pokeball.
"Afraid?" Roslie smirked.
"No way." Jamie laughed, "Next?"
"Go! Drapion!"
The huge Poison/Dark scorpion appeared.
"Go, Iblis!"
The Charizard roared and used Flamethrower, straight up in the air.
"Cross Poison!"
"Fly!"
Iblis easily avoided the attack by taking off. Drapion was heavy and slow, it was no match in speed and agility for the lighter and faster Fire/Flying type.
"Pin Missile!"
"Flamethrower!"
The pin missile hit, but was shrugged off, the Bug type attack not even making the Charizard flinch. Drapion, however, looked chargrilled when the attack died.
"Poison Fang!"
"But it won't hit…" Jamie screeched as Drapion moved surprisingly quickly, and bit into her arm.
Iblis roared, outraged, and blasted the Drapion with Fire Blast, causing it to let go and be blasted back into its Trainer, who was chargrilled along with it.
Jamie knelt, holding her bleeding arm, trying not to whimper with the pain. Iblis chased the Grunt and Rare Hunter away as a couple of crowd members closed in.
"Are you ok Miss?"
"Just… just need a bandage." Jamie said, feeling slightly light headed, but attempting to shake it off, "Once I've bandaged up my arm, I have to go after them."
"You should go to hospital."
"No!" Jamie felt a bit better, or so she told herself. "I've got to stop them."
"Go to the hospital." One of the crowd members said, "Surely you can spare the time, the Tournament's finals aren't till…"
"No." Jamie pulled her black backpack off of her back and dug out her first aid kit, "I just knew I'd need this." She bandaged up her arm and dug through a small pocket of her backpack. "Damn, I thought I had more then one of those left…"
"Anything we can get you?"
"No, just a berry for my Pokemon." Jamie said, holding up a Pecha Berry, small and pink, sending out her Mightyena, who was a little unsteady but still on his feet. "Here, eat up and we'll go hunting."
"Ena!" Shade roared, and after eating the berry, roared at Iblis, who swooped down and scooped Jamie up, startling the Trainer, and following the canine from the ground.
"Iblis, I'm not an invalid!" Jamie protested.
"Izard! Char! IzardChar!"
"I'm being careful, I'm fine!"
"Izard!"
"Fine, I promise I'll get myself checked over. Tomorrow."
"Izard!"
"I wasn't poisoned."
"Zard."
"No I wasn't. I'm fine aren't I? I'm not sick."
"Izard Zard!"
"I promise I'll get myself checked over if I feel sick."
"Zard."
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"Man that was weird, I knew that guy was a big creep, but who knew he was just a front for an even bigger creep?" Joey asked, once the Rare Hunter Marik was speaking through collapsed.
"Here you go Joey." Yami offered the teen back his Red Eyes Black Dragon.
"Na Yuge." Joey declined, citing wanting to have Yugi's back for a change as the reason for not taking back his best and favourite card, "And any way," He said, "I have a Dragon at my back. You should have one too."
"Thank you Joey." Yami smiled, "Actually we both have at least one Dragon at our back."
Joey laughed, "I wouldn't say that to her face. Between us, we'll whup this Marik creep and his Rare Hunter goon squad so hard they won't know what hit them, they'll be sorry they ever decided to mess with us."
"You're a true friend Joey, and together we'll be able to defeat any evil that comes our way."
"All right, which of you Duellists wants a piece?" Joey asked turning and challenging all of Battle City, arms raised, though there wasn't really anyone around to hear. No one wanted to be the next victim… sorry, opponent… of the King of Games. "Just step up so Joey can knock ya down!"
The two friends split up, going in different directions.
"Watch yourself Marik." Joey thought as he walked away without looking back, "Yugi and I are gunna be trailing you every step of the way, the Rare Hunters have become the Rare Hunted."