Fan Fiction / Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ The Fourth God ❯ Chapter 4 ( Chapter 4 )

The Fourth "God"

A Yu-Gi-Oh!/X-Men: Evolution crossover fic.

Written by Rogue Moon

"Professor Xavier is a jerk! "

~Katherine Pryde, X-Men # 168

Chapter Four

The rest of Sunday passed without event and so Monday came around with Yami full of worry. He sincerely wished he could piggyback in the Puzzle like he did when Yugi went to school in Domino. But he couldn't, not if they wanted to keep their secret. What made it worse was that Yami would be taking classes at the Institute. One on one courses since he was the only resident who was not going to Bayville High during the day. And he had to behave and not disappear halfway through a lecture.

Yugi woke up that morning and had Yami come out of the puzzle. The spirit appeared wearing exactly what his light was. In this case: a pair of underwear.

Yami scowled, "We could have gotten dressed before I came out."

"And how would we explain that?" Yugi asked, digging through the dresser, "Both of us always wearing the same thing, but only one set of clothes in the laundry? Here." The light tossed Ryu's gift to Yami. "Put these on."

The spirit pulled on the leather pants, grumbling to himself. The gift had been surprising and completely out of the norm. For Ryu. The leather pants were black and very shiny, with a metal loop at the bottom of each belt loop and at regular intervals down the outside seems. The pants were also surprising soft. They must have cost a fortune, and after seeing them, Yugi and Yami realized why Ryu had run away like he did. He had been embarrassed.

Yugi pulled out a pair of leather pants for himself and a black tank for Yami. He chose a sleeveless, white, hooded shirt for himself. It was something Malik Ishtar had given them for his birthday. And only because his sister, Ishizu, had insisted. While Yugi was putting on his shirt, Yami claimed the single pair of shoes with buckles and pulled out their pair of ankle boots with the one-inch heels for Yugi. As the boy wasn't even five foot tall, he liked the added height, even if it was only a little.

With the shoe situation taken care of, Yugi tossed two belts to Yami and claimed the thickest two for himself. One went around his waist and the other hung on his hips. The one on the hips had his deck case. His deck went in automatically. Then it was time for jewelry. Yugi had wanted to dress conservatively, at least on the first day, but Yami had insisted that he dress to impress himself. No matter what people thought, if he liked what he was wearing, than nothing else mattered. It had taken about two seconds for the light to give in, so here he was putting on their gold armbands and of course, one of the studded neck collars. Yami wore a second one. They both put on a pair of wrist cuffs and some gold bracelets. One ankh shaped earring went into their left ears, while simple gold hoops went into the right. Last, but not least came the rings Yami enjoyed.

When all that was finished, Yugi threw his brown book bag over one shoulder and tied his blue school jacket around his waist. If he needed it, he could put it on without much hassle.

The two halves were now ready for school.

Then Yugi's stomach growled. Blushing, he led Yami down to the kitchen.

There were three people in the kitchen when the twins arrived. Ororo glanced over, acknowledging their presence, then went back to fixing her eggs. Scott had his back to the door and Bobby waved with his right hand while his left snatched the paper from Scott.

"Hey! I was reading that!" the 'boy scout' protested, grabbing the paper back.

"Aw, come on. I just want the funnies…"

Scott shook his head and tossed the section to the brown haired boy, he nodded at Yugi and Yami as they sat down, and went back to an article on mutants.

Bobby grinned and leaned over to the twins, "You guys want breakfast hot or… cold?"

Scott looked up, "Bobby…"

The prankster ignored his field leader, "Mrs. Munroe will probably cook you up some eggs if you ask nice, but if you want some cereal, I can show you were it is…"

The violet eyed light smiled, "That would be very nice, Bobby-san. Cereal sounds fine."

The darker one nodded his ascent and glanced around the room. Spotting the television, he got up, turned it on, grabbed the remote and went back to his seat. Bobby, meanwhile, showed Yugi where the bowls and cereal were kept. The small boy had the prankster get down a double sized bowl and the box of Marshmallow Puffs. He pulled out two spoons and put them in the bowl, then filled it with cereal. After placing the bowl on the table and pouring the milk, he handed one spoon to Yami and they both started to eat from it. The darker one paying rapt attention to the news while Yugi purposely ignored it.

The lighter half disliked news. He could watch any movie, no matter how violent or scary or completely gory. But the news was different. It was real. As Yami was his darker half, the spirit found the news hypnotizing. He also thought that movies and other such fakery, unless a reenactment, not worth the film it was printed on.

"…And in other news, the issue of mutants and whether or not they should be allowed in public schools, has once again been brought before the Senate." The newscaster read off, catching the attention of everyone in the kitchen, save Yugi. "This issue has been brought before the Senate before this and it was decided at the time to allow mutants to attend public schools as a probationary experiment. This was decided, of course, after the mutant group known as the X-Men where found to be going to school and possibly endangering their community in upstate New York last spring. Councilman John Bryceman has once again brought up the issue, pushing for mutants to be kept out of public schools. And…" the television was turned off by an upset Yami, Scott and Bobby reluctantly going back to their articles.

"John Bryceman, aha-tha aa," the spirit muttered loudly, stabbing his spoon into the bowl of Marshmallow Puffs.

Yugi spit out the bite he had just taken, "Yami!"

The rest of the room stopped what they were doing and gave the twins puzzled looks.

"ptra?"

"That was not called for!"

The darker one snorted, "Did you even listen to it?"

"No, but I'm sure it wasn't worth calling him that," Yugi replied, becoming suddenly doubtful on the subject of weather or not the man could be considered a …donkey.

Yami's shoulders sagged and he let out a very exasperated sigh, lapsing into Japanese, "<I wish you would listen to the news. This Bryceman was bringing up the subject of pro-segregation once again.>"

Ororo smiled to herself and contacted the Professor, ::You have got to hear this.::

Xavier always kept an 'ear' open for his colleagues and students, ::And what is that?::

::Just listen through my ears.::

Yugi frowned, "<Why would he do that?>"

"<Because he, like many people, think that these so-called mutants are a danger to the world and the values of everyday people. You know, the way blacks were a danger thirty or forty years ago here in America.>"

"<That's stupid. Blacks weren't a threat then, and they aren't now. They are regular people like everyone else.>"

"<Exactly. Only Bryceman is now turning that same feeling propagated then onto mutants now.>"

"<How do you know so much about this?>"

"<Remember back at the Duel Monsters world championship? When we were asked about what we thought of mutants?>" the spirit paused, letting Yugi think back and nod when he remembered. "<Afterwards, I took the time to study what material was available on the matter. It's part of why I was so eager to come with you on this trip. Apparently, the most well known group of mutants, the 'X-Men' reside near here. Although, who their real identities are, my information sources couldn't find out. That's classified. It's a fascinating subject really. Almost as engrossing as magic.>"

Yugi froze, spoon halfway to his mouth. "<Yami! That was supposed to be a secret!>" he hissed, kicking his dark in the shins.

"<Oh, yes, they can understand every word we say. As Katsuya would say: NOT! The only one who can understand us is Munroe-san. And she doesn't seem to care that we dabble in magic.>" //She probably thinks we're talking about slight of hand.//

Ororo nodded to the twins and finished eating her eggs, ::So, what do you think?::

::I believe we may not have to keep our secret, so… secret. They both seem very open minded. Watch Yami today and test the waters. If it looks promising, then perhaps we can put it to a vote. I'm sure Kurt would like to hide for as little as possible.::

::Sounds fine to me. I'll contact you later.:: the weather witch replied and dropped her connection to Xavier.

Rogue walked in while the twins looked to be having something of a glaring contest. She smiled politely at them for about two second before her attention was totally focused on Scott. It made her heart thump just a little bit faster when she watched him read the paper and that little line formed on his brow. It was so cute. "So, Scott," She started in, wanting something, anything, to talk to the field leader about, "do you think today's English test will be easy? What with it being over Beowulf and all?"

Scott looked up, his mouth full of cereal, and attempted to say, "What test?" Milk and bits of chewed fiber spilled out and he had to lower his head so it would all go back in the bowl. Wiping his mouth with a napkin, he raised his head to see everyone attempting not to laugh and not doing a very good job, either. He cleared his throat, trying to save some dignity, "What test?"

"Hel~lo?" Rouge replied unintentionally as part of Kitty's speech wormed its way out, "Only the test we were told about on Friday. On the first two parts of Beowulf? Does that sound familiar?"

Scott shook his head 'no'.

Rogue rejoiced inside, and rolled her eyes outside, "Tell you what, you can barrow my notes until lunch, and we can go over them together then. That way we both get a refresher before class. Is that cool?"

Scott grinned, "Sounds great! I can't believe I forgot about that. I guess I was just so worried about Kitty and Yugi and everything."

Rogue shrugged non-committedly, "Everyone has an off day." Her inner self was shrieking and hugging her inner Kitty as both celebrated. Her inner Kitty, unlike the real one, thought that Scott and Rogue made a cute couple.

"Speaking of classes," Bobby interrupted, "What one's do you have, Yugi?"

The boy tore his attention away from breakfast and Yami and started to count his classes on his fingers, "Um, I have Homeroom, World Religions, Physics, Trigonometry, Lunch, English…um…" Yugi stopped to think, trying to remember the right English words for the next class.

Yami, meanwhile, reached into Yugi's bag and pulled out the list. "Physical Torment 101," he filled in as he handed to paper to Yugi.

"Oh, right," the light murmured. "How could I forget." As athletic as Yugi had gotten, he was still very small and still very much a target for bullies, especially during Gym class. "Gym."

Ororo laughed outright at Yugi's tone, so full of distain and the bite of doom. "I take it you don't like Gym?"

Yami raised an eyebrow, "Don't like Gym? That, Munroe-san, is an understatement. It is very easy to get injured in that class."

"Injuries from large, tall, big muscled bullies," Yugi added, starting up their habit of finishing thoughts for each other out loud. Katsuya said it was disturbing whenever they did it around him because of the way their voices blended.

Yami shook his head and sighed, "Gym is not a…"

"Favorite class," Yugi frowned. "Normally I just say in the…"

"Room and work on a…"

"Puzzle or two. I like puzzles and…"

"Games. They keep my mind occupied and…"

"Off the fact that I'm not all that…"

"Strong. Although, watching the girls play…"

"Basketball and volleyball isn't so bad."

Both boys grinned and leaned forward as if in conspiracy and spoke as one, "The girls' uniform at my school has a skirt."

Bobby snickered and Scott smirked. Rogue whapped the first on the back of the head and glared at the second. Ororo rolled her eyes, she was used to immature boys.

Bobby ignored the quick pain and headed out the door to grab his book bag from his room, "I'll have to remember that next time some of the guys don't want any girls to play."

*****

Logan, Ororo, and Professor Xavier saw Yugi and the others off to school at the front door, giving Yami the single unobserved moment he needed to shift into spirit form and get a secure hold on the back of the jeep Jean was driving. He had decided not to stay around for the day. He wanted to go explore the town and since Yugi was in Scott's convertible, which was in front of the Jeep, he wouldn't notice what Yami was doing. The spirit gave a mock salute to the three at the doors of the institute and grinned evilly as the cars moved out.

It took about ten minutes for the convoy to get to the school, and another fifteen for Yami to walk into downtown Bayville unnoticed. When he got to a fairly unused and unobserved alley, he made himself material and checked the time at a nearby café. By his calculations it would take at least another hour of searching for the teachers at the institute to figure out he wasn't anywhere on the premises. So he had a while before he had to watch his back for anyone looking for him. Smiling to himself, he headed south along some busy street, picking the route at random.

*****

:: Logan? :: Xavier sent to his old friend, :: Please come down to Dr. McCoy's Lab. ::

:: Coming, Chuck. :: the Canadian replied, cursing again at his inability to find the more disturbing of the twins. It had been over an hour since everyone else had left for school and the stowaway had made himself scarce. The thing that frustrated Logan the most was that he couldn't track the boy by his scent. The twins smelled exactly alike and intermingled so much it was impossible for the man to untangle the boy's location. Logan was really starting to dislike the kid.

It took him maybe five minutes to get to Hank's lab. When he did, he got quite a shock. There on the monitors was a shot of Yami disappearing from sight. A one-minute loop that kept repeating the scene in every spectrum possible in current science. And on every one of them he was there one moment and gone the next. As if he had never existed.

"It seems," Ororo said with a wry smile, "that he has a reason for being sympathetic to mutants."

Logan raised an eyebrow and lighted a cigar, "What do you mean?"

"Hank? Could you bring up this mornings' kitchen session?"

The blue fur ball pushed his glasses back up his nose and began typing, "Of course. Anything for the beautiful Goddess of the Winds."

Ororo smiled, "Flattery will get you no where."

"What flattery? I thought that was your title."

"Only in Central Africa, my friend."

"Forgive me. Ah, here it is. What would you like to see?"

"Bring it up to when our guests entered."

The video fast-forwarded to just after the twins sat down, Logan studying the two boys with the eyes of a hunter. Their conversation played through and Logan had Hank set those few minutes on repeat, "That makes sense, but something confuses me."

Xavier titled his head to one soda, "And what would that be?"

"What Yami said. He 'took the time to study what material was available on the matter' and thought it was 'a fascinating subject'. As if he had never heard of mutants before that."

"Perhaps he didn't realize there were others like himself?"

"Maybe. Think Yugi's a mutant, too?"

"Most likely, they are twins," Charles replied, rolling his chair closer to the screens. "Scott and Alex aren't twins and they are both mutants. Sam and Tabitha are not twins and they are both mutants and some of their siblings will probably come into power when they hit puberty. In fact, they probably share an ability and even limited telepathy with each other. People who are close often gain a bit of telepathy with each other, even non-mutants."

Ororo stopped the loop and brought the tape to when the boys were talking for each other, "That would explain this disturbing bit."

Xavier furrowed his brow and thought for a long minute, "If you were a sixteen year old boy and you wanted to get out of doing school work, where would you go?"

Logan put out his cigar, "I'd go into town. Ro? Could you do a pattern over the city while I take the streets?"

"Consider it done."

*****

Three hours had now passed with Yami barely keeping out of sight of Logan for the past one and a half. The spirit had first spotted the man on a motorcycle just after he finished browsing through a comic store. He should have been able to shake the short man right then and there, but the Canadian kept popping up. It was like he could track his scent.

Yami was currently in a dimly lit pool hall filled with smoke. On the off chance that Logan really was tracking him like a dog, then his current environment should throw the man off. The spirit headed over to the bar and sat as far from the door as possible.

The bartender nodded his head at the door, "We can't serve you, you should leave."

"All I want is some water. It is hot outside," Yami replied, attempting the puppy dog eyes Yugi had taught him.

The man chewed on his cigarette for a moment then shrugged and poured him a glass, "Water won't kill ya."

"Thank you."

The bartender left and a moment later a man who should have had better things to do with his time and a woman too beautiful to be all-natural approached. The man grinned, "Well look what we have here. A little punk just out of diapers. Move it, shrimp, you're in my seat." The woman giggled and held tighter on the man's arm.

Yami gave the man a glare, "Are you really so inane as to want this seat when there are twenty open?"

"It's MY seat."

"I'll take that as a yes," Yami rolled his eyes and got up, not really wanting a fight. Finishing his glass of water, he headed back outside. He hadn't gotten three steps before the man grabbed the back of his shirt and spun him around. The man then pushed Yami against the bar, getting real close as his girlfriend giggled some more.

"You think you're smart, shrimp?" the man asked, a smirk of amusement on hip lips.

"I know I am," Yami replied. He wasn't in the mood for a fight, but who was he to deny another pleasure?

The man laughed and turned to his girl, sticking his thumb at Yami, "You hear that, Dumpling? Kid thinks he's smart!"

'Dumpling' giggled some more. The spirit was starting to think that's all she did.

The man turned back to Yami, pushing against the boy's chest until he was flush against the bar, "You aren't smart. If you were you'd know that little kids shouldn't try and mingle with grownups."

Yami smiled a small, yet exceedingly disturbing smile and locked eyes with the man, "Play with me."

*****

Logan cursed again. He had gotten Yami's scent, only to lose it in a crowded store. He had caught it again a half-hour later at an ice cream parlor vacated only minutes before. Five more times, the mutant had caught the kid's scent only to lose it. It was like the boy knew he was being followed. Heck, he probably did. But not even Sabertooh was this good at losing him when Logan put his mind to tracking something or someone.

Ororo last reported catching sight of the boy at the Ice Cream parlor minutes before Logan arrived, but had lost him as he went into a large shopping area. Too many people had made him hard to track if she wanted to remain unseen, and she did.

Logan growled and headed back into downtown to check the stores that would most likely appeal to a sixteen-year-old boy. And since his power was disappearing, that probably meant one of the two strip joints in town.

The radio fuzzed in just as he started his bike. Ororo's voice came through calm and clear, "I found him. He just entered a pool hall on tenth and grand. I'll be entering shortly."

Logan growled again, "Keep him there. I know that place. Make sure he doesn't get in trouble. Wolverine out."

"Affirmative, Storm out."

Logan slammed his helmet on and grumbled to himself, "I told Larry he shouldn't open so early…"

*****

Yugi blew out air, attempting to make the bangs in front of his face move as way to alleviate the boredom he felt as the Trigonometry teacher droned on and on and on…

The Day hadn't started out too badly. When he got to school, he was escorted to his homeroom and introduced after class began. Most people snickered at his size and some of the girls passed him notes about his jewelry. Apparently it was unheard of for a boy to wear so much real gold. The class went by fairly quick.

His second class was World History. He made quite a buzz when the teacher called on him to tell what he knew about World War II. Yugi's reply had been simple: People died. The teacher hadn't found that very satisfactory but the other students thought it was hilarious and several passed notes to him about wanting to talk at lunch. If only he had been this popular at home…

Yugi's third class was Physics. It wasn't too difficult, he had already been through the subject being covered.

And now he was stuck in boring Trig. /I wonder what Yami's doing?/

*****

The man gave Yami a 'You have to be kidding' look. Yami kept grinning, "Play a game, that is. Unless, of course, you don't think you're smart enough…?"

The man glared, "Fine. I'll play, and when I'm done, I'll beat your face in."

"Then let us adjourn to the alley. That way, no one will see you beat my face in."

"Sounds good to me," The man released Yami and headed outside. "Com'on Dumpling. You Like watching me smash things. And after I'm done with that, we can take him home and you can have a new pony to ride." 'Dumpling' giggled and followed with Yami not two steps behind.

Just before exiting, he turned to the bartender, "You might want to check your garbage later. Those two painted pieces of trash will probably take up a lot of space." Then he walked outside and around the corner. He didn't notice the white haired woman crossing the street.

When he got far enough down the alley, the man from the bar grabbed Yami by the collar and pushed him against the brick wall. "Now what kind of game is this?"

Yami's smiled hadn't left his face, "A simple one. You have to solve my riddle. If you do, then you may do as you wish to me. I'll even give you three guesses. But if you can't, or if you try and cheat by beating me up, then the Penalty Game will decide your fate."

The man put Yami down and looked over at 'Dumpling'. They both started to laugh and the man crossed his arms, "Okay, shoot."

Yami crossed his arms as well and recited:

"The snake can't ever make them.

The shark he never tries.

The eagle prefers not to,

And so away he flies.

And yet one can always find them

In many climes and lands.

A man himself can make them,

But never with his hands."

Then man stood there and his jaw dropped, "Say what?"

"That is my riddle. You have three tries to solve it."

'Dumpling' wrapped her arm around the man's waist and whispered in his ear. He shook his head no and they started a quiet, hissed argument.

*****

Ororo crossed the street and contacted Logan as she looked down the alley where Yami was standing with two adults, "Wolverine? He left the bar and is currently in the alley closest to it. He's not alone, either."

Logan's voice fuzzed in, "Who's with him?"

"Two poorly dressed people. I can take them out easily."

"Wait 'til I get there. Unless they're attacking him."

"No, they are not."

"Then wait a minute or two more, I'm almost there. Wolverine out."

"Storm out."

*****

The man shook his girlfriend off, "Jewelry. The answer is jewelry."

Yami held up one finger, "One wrong answer down, two to go. Try again."

"Then it's money."

"Wrong again. One answer to go."

The man balled up his fists, "Screw this, I'm going to beat your living daylights out of you." That said he swung at Yami. 'Dumpling' rushed at him, too, trying to get him by surprise.

The spirit dodged and jumped back, closer to the alley's entrance. He shook his head and tsked, "Your insecurities and depravities are your undoing. If only you had put some thought into the riddle, you could have solved it easily. But instead, you chose to try and cheat. For that you must play the Penalty Game."

A golden eye appeared on Yami's forehead and the two backed away, suddenly feeling less confident in themselves.

Yami held out his right hand, pointing at them, "PENALTY GAME! PRIDE! The illusion of grandeur!"

The golden eye expanded and rushed at the two, who were too shocked to run. When the light cleared, the lovers were pulling cardboard boxes and bags of trash to themselves. The woman going on about the soft furs idiots just toss out and the man mumbling about all the fame he was getting from a hit record album and wouldn't this gold record look great on the wall of the white house? After all, in his mind, he had just won the election.

Yami shoved his hands in his pockets, pleased with his work and headed out of the alley, "For the record, the answer was 'footprints'."

He got two feet from the entrance when he was once again shoved against the wall. This time, by a very angry Logan, "What the hell did you just do?"

Yami just glared at the Canadian, upset at being caught and very worried about what might happen to Yugi.

Logan narrowed his eyes and pulled him out of the alley and towards his bike, "If you won't answer me, then maybe you'll spill to Chuck."

"What about those people?" Ororo asked, coming up and sitting on the very back of the bike so Yami would be between her and Logan.

The small man thought for a moment and then headed into the bar. A few minutes later he walked back out and got on the bike, "Larry'll take care of 'em for a day or two, but that's it. He didn't try anything, did he?"

Ororo shook her head no. She had half expected Yami to try and run, but he hadn't. He sat in front of her and did nothing.

Logan mounted and Yami wrapped his arms around the man's waist. He had no good reason to try and run and one very good reason to go with the two. And that reason was Yugi's safety.

*****

End Chapter Four

The riddle used is not mine. That was found in the book 'Lair of the Sphinx: A Riddle Book' copyright 1999, Cloud Kingdom Games, Inc. page 65

'-san' is the Japanese equivalent of 'sir' or 'madam'; '-kun' and '-chan' are suffixes to show endearment