A New Generation of Duelist

Author: 1st Yugioh fic in a while. Forgive for any OoCness. Tanya, Jessie, Cry, Zeth, Danny & Amie belong to me.

"Why isn't anyone coming in today?" A young blonde rested her head againest the counter in the Game Shop.

"It's a Saturday. Everyone sleeps late." Tea said, walking in.

"Unless you live or work here." the blonde said.

"Tanya." she said, leaning againest the wall. "It's true mom. Nobody here sleeps in." Tanya told her.

"Morning." Yugi said.

"Morning Yugi." they both said. In the years since Pegasus, Marik and all the others who had tried to use Duel Monsters for their evil plans, things had settled down. Some of the duelist were married and had kids. Tea and Joey had gotten together and had Tanya; Mai and Valon had a daughter of their own. Neither Tristan nor Duke had strayed far away.

"Hey guys." Another girl, older than Tanya, came in.

"Hey Crystal." Tanya said.

"Don't tell me you've been up here since nine this morning." she said, sitting on the glass counter.

"Okay, I won't. Because I've been here since eight." she muttered.

"Why?" Crys asked, looking at the cards in the case.

"Truck brought in boxes of cards. Had to be up here to get them in and sign for it." Tanya muttered.

Tea looked up at the clock and said, "I've got to go. Bye girls."

"Bye." both said, watching her leave for work. Yugi went into the back room.

"Girl, you need to learn to sleep in." Crys said, a hint of an australian accent in her voice.

"I can't. Nobody who works up here does." she said. Yugi came back out with a few boxes.

"What's up Yugi?" Tanya asked, looking up.

"Help me put this on the shelves and I'll let you each keep a few packs of cards." he said, opening a box.

"Okay." they said as Tanya vaulted over the counter to land gracefully next to Crystal.

A motorcycle roared down the street, followed by a car.

"He'll never change." the car's driver said. She tossed a strand of her blonde hair back over her shoulder. The Game Shop came into site and they both stopped. "There's such a thing as a speed limit Valon." she said.

"I know Mai." he said, taking off his helmet. He had a strong australian accent and brown hair. Mai loved him for his reckless, but determined nature.

"Crys said that she would be here in the note that she left." she reminded him.

Both girls were sticking packs of Duel Monster cards on the plastic hooks on the shelves as quick as they could. They both knew that about 11:00 or 11:30 people would start showing up and it was 10:45 now. But neither noticed when the door open or when Mai and Valon walked in.

"Hey guys." Yugi said.

"Seen Crys mate?" Valon asked.

"She's helping Tanya put packs of cards on the shelves." he said, sticking a few packs on the hooks.

"Crys?" Mai asked, turning. The older girl looked up and turned around.

"Morning." she said, spotting her parents.

"Hi love." Valon told Tanya.

"Up early?" Mai asked Crystal.

"I got up and couldn't bloody go back to sleep. So I ate, changed, wrote you two a note and left." she said.

"We got up a little after ten and found the note saying that you had come here." Mai told her.

"You and dad were still asleep just before I left, so I didn't want to wake either of you up to ask for a ride." she said. Tanya got up and hugged them both.

"Well, mates. I've got to get to work." Valon said.

"Bye." all four of them said. He waved and disappeared outside.

"I should be headed off too." Mai muttered. Outside, Valon's bike roared to life.

"He loves his bike being loud." Crys said.

"Sounds like my dad and Tristan." Tanya agreed. Mai gave a wave as she walked out. The girls sighed and went back to work. The door opened again and they both groaned softly, expecting customers.

"Good morning Yugi." But the voice could only belong to one person and that was Jessie. Jessie had been of friend of theirs for a couple of years or so. She was the daughter of Rex Raptor and a woman named Amie. Jessie was different than Tanya and Crys, but she did have an independent streak, along with the purple section to her bangs that Rex had. But Jess was proud of that, as she should be, Tanya told her.

"Hey Jessie." the blonde said, not looking up.

"What are you two doing?" she asked crouching behind them.

"Getting cards on the shelves before the crowd gets in." she said.

"Ah." she muttered.

"Hey, girls. That's good. Grab yourselves a couple of packs of cards each." Yugi told them. They got up and took what remained of the boxes to the back room. This was the girl's payment for working at the Game Shop. They work and got cards and various other things in return.

"Working here off the clock isn't so bad. We're always getting new cards to put in our decks." Crys said.

"Now you know why I've been working up here since I was little." Tanya told her. The thirteen year old pulled herself on the counter. She was blonde like Joey, but had a dancer build like Tea. One eye was blue and the other was brown, which she usually hid behind shades. Tanya had her own style when it came to anything. She usually wore tank tops with cut-up jeans and boots. But she didn't let people let anyone boss her around, in fact, she was usually the one who was in control of everything. Dangerously independent, she was well know with the shop's usual customers, because although a hard worker and nice person, she didn't let anyone talk down to her or anyone else in the shop. And as far as she was concerned, if someone didn't like it, they could walk out the door and come back when they could deal.

"Since you were an ankle-biter?" Crys corrected, throwing in just a bit of aussie slang. She was half australian thanks to her dad. She was a brunette with some natural blonde streaks and violet eyes. She was tall and had a medium build. Tough, but loyal, Crys had more than proven that she could be there for her friends and would do anything for them. She had been working at the Game Shop for two years, hooked on the place after waundering in six months before Yugi offered her a job. Everybody at the shop considered her part of the family and she saw them as such, though she still had Mai and Valon, both of which came around. A great duelist, she'd take people on the nearby park or out back of the shop. Only fourteen, she was very mature and used to adjusting quickly to things. Her mom was a model who worked at a studio downtown; Valon was a mechanic at the car shop a block away. But that busy lifestyle that was only added to by the fact that she hung out on the street alot had put in her a street wise attitude and plenty of independence.

"Yeah, since I was a ankle-biter." Tanya said, with a smirk. Jessie leaned up againest the counter beside her. Jessie was Rex's daughter, 17, but she only resembled him in a few ways. Besides having the little bit of purple in her bangs, she also had a love for dino cards that led her into the shop just before Crys started working. Jessie's hair was waist length and strawberry red. Her eyes were a bright green and full of life and energy; she wasn't a tomboy, like Tanya and Crystal. Unlike her dad, she wasn't cocky, full of herself or play dirty to get what she wanted. In fact, she was one of the nicest people you could meet, unless you meet her in a duel. Then you were in the deepest of trouble, because her deck was full of powerful dinosaurs and some that weren't strong, but had a good effect. She also was well known to keep many magic and trap cards in her deck to throw opponents of their games. And that worked very well and was why Tanya liked her.

But their group wasn't complete just yet, there were still a couple of people left to complete the small team that they had put together.

"So where are the boys?" Crys asked.

"I don't know. I haven't talked to either of them this morning." Jessie muttered, closing her eyes. Two shadows fell in the doorway and their owners entered.

"Speaking of the two." Tanya said.

"Morning to you too." Danny said, stretching. He was Duke Devlin's son and you could tell. The guy had the same black hair, tan skin and green eyes as his dad. But he wasn't as much of a flirt as his dad, but a flirt none the less.

"No breakfast for the two sleeping homelys?" the other asked.

"If you want breakfast, then go home Zeth. Just because you're folks are split, doesn't mean you can appear in someone else's house and expect them to cook you breakfast!" Tanya ordered him. Zeth backed up from his younger cousin with his hands up in the air.

"Hey, chill out. I was joking." he told her.

"Don't come around here and joke like that. I doubt Tristan would like hearing me telling him that over the phone." she snapped. Danny, Crys and Jessie flinched at the weight of her tone.

"Beat it Zeth and come back when you aren't a bloody creep." Crys told him. He slammed the door behind him as he stormed out. Tanya went into the storage room and pulled herself onto the top of one of the shelves. She sat there cross-legged, trying to relax. Usually, she wasn't so short tempered although there were a few things that could try her temper to the point of breaking.

"Heyya mate." Crys said, looking up at her. She looked down at her friend with a grateful look.

"You alright?" she asked. Tanya nodded.

"Dan's still in there." she muttered. The younger girl shrugged. In the street two bikes roared to a stop.

"I know those bikes." Tanya said.

"Let's go." Crys told her. They walked out into the main shop and sure enough they had been right about who owned the bikes. Allister and Rapheal were leaning againest the glass case.

"Get over here." Allister said. The boys liked their bikes, Jessie loved to duel them, and Tanya liked having them around because it made her job of running off troublemakers a bit easier. Crystal hung out with them more than anyone because they were both her god-fathers, but she never got tired of them. Raph ruffled Crys's hair and Allister smacked gently Tanya in the face, which she returned without a second thought, to used to their playful fighting to care.

Zeth carefully stuck his head in the shop ten minutes later and glanced around. His cousin looked to be in a good mood again. He came back inside. Jessie looked at him and then over at Tanya, who had taken notice of his entry. Allister glanced at both of them.

"If you came back, wondering if you're forgiven. You are." she muttered.

"So you did fight." Raph muttered.

"Just a little scrap." Crystal told him.

"I saw that there's going to be a duelist tournament." Zeth said.

"When?" Jessie asked.

"Two days from now. At the big stadium in the middle of the city." he said. All heads turned to Tanya.

"We'll be there." she said.

"Sounds pretty cool." Danny said.