Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction ❯ There's Something About Honda ❯ Never known to soothe ( Chapter 5 )
[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]
By: Necromaster 
Corgi's pretty angry about the state of her 'lover boy,' and Isis is getting the blame for it, when she's trying to look after Mai and somehow get to her brother. And with Pegasus and Johnny keeping Yugi, Shizuka, Honda, Bakura and Kaiba under wraps, can Otogi, Anzu, Jounouchi, Malik and Rishid help them?
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Fantasy / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.26.2005 | Pages: 6 | Words: 12.3K | Visits: 281 | Status: Completed
Corgi's pretty angry about the state of her 'lover boy,' and Isis is getting the blame for it, when she's trying to look after Mai and somehow get to her brother. And with Pegasus and Johnny keeping Yugi, Shizuka, Honda, Bakura and Kaiba under wraps, can Otogi, Anzu, Jounouchi, Malik and Rishid help them?
Anime/Manga: Yu-Gi-Oh! Fan Fiction | Genre(s): Action / Fantasy / Romance | Type: Alternate Universe | Uploaded On: 08.26.2005 | Pages: 6 | Words: 12.3K | Visits: 281 | Status: Completed
Chapter 5
~ Never known to soothe ~
Isis and Corgi were now worn down, and neither was going to give up. Hysteric Angel, Airknight Parshath (1900) Duster Brownie (1500), Pixie Mirror (100) and Zolga (1700) were staring down Corgi's Amazoness Paladin (1900), Amazoness Tiger (1900) and Skull Dog Marron (1350) were all as fierce. It was a close duel, with Isis at 3700 and Corgi still with a full 4000… but not for long.
“Thanks to Paladin's special ability, it gains 100 for every Amazoness on my field, so it also goes up to 1900 to match my Amazoness Tiger.”
Isis looked at the three cards in her hand. She picked up one of the spells and placed it down on the field gingerly.
“I'll activate my spirit of the knight and double attack magic cards.” Snapped Isis. From the sky above her, a stream of golden rain fell in a ring around her monsters. Then, Parshath picked a second sword from a hilt on it's left thigh, holding it up to the amazon militia before him.
“My spirit of the knight magic cards means that when I attack with a monster of the same attack as yours, my monster survives the stalemate. Meanwhile, my double attack allows me to attack your monsters twice. And thanks to Pixie Mirror's effect, I can increase the attack of one monster on my side of the field by 500. So Zolga will raise it's attack to 2200.”
As the centaur got ready to charge, the mirror cast off the fairy, who embraced Zolga's neck as the attack clocked up.
“So now my Parshath will attack both your paladin and tiger, destroying them without me taking any disadvantage.”
The lady and her tiger were shattered by the twin swords of the angelic warrior, and Corgi gasped as Zolga swooped, like an overgrown bat, over the bone canine to destroy it in a single blast.
“Due to the effect of double attack, I have to discard one card from my hand if I use the effect. So I'll discard my elf avatar, which gives me 300 life points for every monster I destroyed this turn.”
Isis felt a warm glow caress her skin through the rain, and her life points increased to 4600.
“Your move Corgi.”
The girl brushed back a couple of auburn locks, straightening her hair band as she pulled the card from her deck. She sneered and placed the card down.
“I'll activate card of sanctity, which makes us draw until we both have six cards in hand.”
Both of them picked up cards to add to their hands.
“I'll use my polymerisation magic card to fuse the artificial dog marron in my hand, the bone dog marron in my hand and the outstanding dog marron in my hand, to special summon Cerberus in attack mode. Next, I'll use my serial spell, to reactivate polymerisation, fusing the gazelle and bafomet in my cemetery to summon chimera.”
Five glowing lights burst from the duel disk, forming two monsters on the field.
“You may be wondering how I was able to fuse from the cemetery? Well, my cerberus allows me to use any monsters in my cemetery as if they were my hand, but I must pay 600 life points for each I use.”
Corgi's life points fell by 1200, going to 2800, and she looked at her two new dogs on the field.
“Now I'll use Cerberus' other ability. By discarding my entire hand, I can special summon up to three monsters with the word `marron' in the name to the field and search out one spell with the same word in it. So I'll search out a third skull dog, another artificial and another outstanding dog marron, and then take out my spell card Marron's natural release.”
Corgi threw her hand into the cemetery, picking up her spell and placing it on the field as the robot canine, bone golem dog and fluffy brown puppy emerged on the field. As the spell took place, all three monsters grew in stature, wild looks appearing on their usually mellow faces.
“Thanks to my card's effect, as long as all three of my dogs are on the field, they get a new attack of 2000.”
Isis looked at her hand. She had only one option.
“Now, my Outstanding dog marron, destroy Airknight Parshath.”
The now enormous hound leapt at the horseman, digging it's teeth deep into the monster's fleshy left leg. The monster shattered apart, and Corgi grinned, only to see her life points drop to 2400.
“What in the world…”
“You triggered the special ability of my pixie mirror again. I can use it even in your turn, so I paid another 500 to increase the attack of Parshath, and let you attack a mirror image of it.”
The dog turned to see a far larger creature than it had just devoured appear and behead it with a firm sword strike. Corgi groaned in anger.
“Fine then, my Skull Dog will attack Zolga.”
The beast leapt at the machine, smashing it apart in a matter of seconds.
“I may lose 300 life points, but I gain 2000 from Zolga's effect, meaning I have a 1700 life point increase.”
Isis's life points raised a further 1700 to 7300.
“Now that your pixie mirror's defence is lowered then, my cerberus will destroy it, and you take 1300 damage due to the difference between attack and defence.”
Isis had forgotten that for the attack boosts she had given, her mirror's defence lowered, and she fell to 5000, and also to her knees.
“Now your hysteric angel is next, and my chimera will destroy it with a total attack of 2100, dealing a further 300 damage to your life points.”
Isis moaned as she felt her angel explode before her, and her life points fell to 4700.
“And now my artificial dog marron will destroy your duster brownie, leaving you with 4200 life points.”
As Isis saw her health clock down, she felt winded by the pounding of the dog's metal head against her chest.
“Now I end, and due to my spell card, all three of my marron dogs are destroyed.”
Isis drew her seventh card.
“It's over, Corgi.” She said, simply. The girl didn't answer. She wasn't giving up now.
“I still have two monsters on the field. I highly doubt it.”
Yep, she's like Mai alright…
Isis placed down her spell.
“I activate my shinato ark, discarding toon gemini elf and mystical elf to summon shinato, king of a higher plane.”
A large wooden boat appeared before the two women, and with an explosion of light, a tall man, covered in fine golden robes and with midnight blue skin, emerged beside the centaur paladin.
“Now I use my God's final order card, allowing me to special summon the two cards I used to summon Shinato, bringing back Mystical Elf and Toon Gemini. Then, I tribute Mystical Elf and Toon Gemini to summon Guardian Angel Joan.”
As her spell faded away, two orbs of light flew into the air, forming into a set of earrings that were attached to a set of delicate ears. A short crop of ginger hair flapped wildly in the wind, long white robes bellowing out like a torn flag in the mad rainstorm. Corgi began to wail, covering her eyes with a cardigan sleeves, crying into them.
“You hurt my sweet Horus and now you do the same to me…” Sobbed Corgi, clasping her breast as she fell to the ground.
“What do you mean I hurt your sweet Horus? I never did anything to him!”
“You liar! I saw him over by the trash cans with the dent in his chest.”
Isis's eyes widened in shock.
“Don't try and hide it any longer you stupid lady, you did that to him!”
“No… I didn't…” Sighed Isis, wiping a tear from her eye.
“But I know who did.”
Corgi looked up at Isis, and grinned, got ready to accept her fate.
“Now, Guardian Angel Joan will destroy Chimera, doing 700 damage to your life points and lowering you to 1700.”
The beautiful angelic lady swept a rapier past the khaki beast, destroying it.
“Now, Shinato, attack Cerberus, doing 900 further damage.” Announced Isis, swinging her hand forward to announce the attack. A ring of light burst from the man's cupped hands, and the canine was engulfed in a bright light, sending it to the cemetery.
“And finally, airknight parshath, deal the final blow.”
Corgi shut her eyes as the sword sliced her chest with a sharp wind. She collapsed in a blubbering heap.
“The person who did that to your lover is no friend of mine, but I do know who it is. He used an ancient magical relic to visit the soul of your sweetheart Horus and control him like a mind puppet.” Said Iris, soothingly, rubbing a hand up and down Corgi's back.
Corgi looked up at Isis, finding it hard to believe.
“I know you don't believe me, but it's true. I promise. The thing is, I have no idea how he's here or where `here' is. But I promise we'll find him.”
Corgi began crying again, embracing Isis's neck. The two of them sat in the rain, cooing to each other like sisters, forgetting the forms behind them for just a minute, as they found new friends.
Kaiba had now stopped looking at Mokuba and had turned to see Ryuzaki.
“How… how can he be here when he was in the infirmary? I saw on the system today he had been duelling with his team, and yet… is there two of them?”
Pegasus chuckled as he showed a card he was holding.
“My eye can do more than magic tricks Kaiba Boy. Thanks to it's power from Yami No Games, it can make cards come real, and my precious doppleganger has allowed me to do that. This here, is the real Ryuzaki, but wherever the other is, he's merely a copy.”
“But why. Why did you want him?” Asked Bakura, butting in.
“It's a fairly simple reason, actually. I need all the cards I can get to help summon Zorc by channelling the Ka out of them, and Ryuzaki just happens to be a mediocre duelist, meaning I get a decent supply of cards easily, but still good ones.”
Honda was looking at Mokuba and the boy, who was just as lifeless as ever.
“And why are they here? Godammit Pegasus, they're only children!” Snapped Honda, throwing himself in front of the others.
“Mokuba's deck happened to contain rather potent monsters. And Horus had a little card I happened to need.”
“And that would be?” Asked Kaiba, hoping he had the card to barter with Pegasus.
“Your brother has the envoys, very useful indeed, and of course rare, while Fletcher Boy happens to hold Reshef, one of the demi-gods.”
“Demi-gods?” Asked Bakura, remembering being attacked by Osiris back on battle ship for a brief second.
“Indeed. Horus, Nephtys, Reshef and the Creator. Each of them is held by a particular duelist, and luckily, I happen to have all four in easy reach.”
“What do you mean?” Replied Honda, ready to start fighting if Pegasus got too far out of hand.
“My team mates happen to hold Nephtys and Horus due to the lives they lead. I myself hold the creator for obvious reasons. The two birds of fire are kept by two families that I myself have never quite got along with, they were noisy, annoying and stuck up brats if ever I'd meet any.” Spat Pegasus.
“A bit like you then.” Retorted Kaiba, edging towards Mokuba, to feel his limbs snap together again.
“Easy Kaiba Boy. You are here, of course, because you have a connect with ancient egyptian history and can tap into the power of sennen items we cannot possess. All of the items are here, except for the puzzle, but no matter. When Yugi enters the finals of this tournament, we'll make sure to steal it.”
Kaiba remembered seeing himself hold the rod, and his supposed ancient father having the eye. Of course, Pegasus had got the eye back, and that Victor person had been able to take two of them, so with the Tauk and Ring left, all they needed was Isis and Bakura. And of course Yugi, but they had plans for him already.
“As you know, Bakura also can hold the ring, and this time, it's the real one. And of course, Isis will be coming soon, due to what we did to her brother and his annoying friend.”
Victor now returned from the compound, and lead everyone silently into the main building. They travelled down a long stairwell, stopping at the bottom to face a large stone door. Opening it up, the three hostages had to contain their horror.
Isis never liked late night phone calls, but she and Corgi had to follow this one. It had come from a rather mysterious voice, which she was sure she recognised. They had been told to go to the main toll bridge at the Eastern Domino Highway, and she had obliged, catching a bus that happened to be going in that direction. Although she desperately needed to wash her hair and do her make-up again thanks to the rain making it cascade down her face, she somehow felt this was important. You can take the sennen item from the person, but you can't take the person from the sennen item, and Isis still had those dangerous instincts that things would effect her, or what she would draw next in a duel would be important.
She had left Corgi to guard the others at the tables, and received another call (damn teenagers) to tell her Horus had disappeared and that the others were waking up.
The bus halted at the toll bridge, and Isis got off, paid her fare, and stepped over to the far end of the bridge, not too far from her stop, and followed what the instructions had said, and looked down to the river below. She didn't know precisely what happened next. A sharp stab burned through her back, her vision went black, and she fell, down, down, down…
Corgi shivered for the umpteenth time as she looked about her. Mai and Vivian had now begun to wake, their eyes hazy and their memories foggy. Haga had also woken up, and had been perfectly alert, already stumbling home. Ghoul however, wasn't doing anything. Corgi reckoned she had little need to check on him though, and instead put Mai and Vivian out into the rain to try and wake them up. She figured it may act like a cold shower, or something of the sort. It took about half an hour for the two of them to finally fully awake, both of them needing to be filled in about what had happened. They were glad to find themselves with seven item cards apiece now, but Isis had seemed far less bothered, and when asked by the two ladies as to where Isis was, Corgi could only say she had been told to go to the toll bridge on the Eastern Highway.
“Isis isn't a rash person. She'll be fine.” Said Mai, leaning back in her chair. Vivian looked at her in an exasperated manner. She never did get to express her opinion though, as, rather unexpectedly, they felt their navels being tugged, and getting to glance back at a melting form of Ryuzaki, they disappeared in a flash of light. The doppelganger returned to it's original form, and disappeared to reunite with his card.
Even Pegasus and Victor seemed shocked at the sight of the room, and they should have been. It wasn't your ordinary hall. The room was made of a crumbling stone, standing up on once elegant pillars was a rough ceiling, blanking out the night sky completely.
Around them, hundreds of duel monster cards were encased on the walls, each in labelled display boxes, and in each were the decks of various duellists, pegged up to the whitewashed backs. Hundreds more empty boxes spread down the far side of the chamber, while people in long white robes bustled about, checking large machines, all circling what seemed to be an enormous indigo urn, bubbling with acid lime liquid. Just a few feet away, in between the doorway and the computer systems, was a large stone tomb, circled with ring-like inscriptions.
Standing behind that was the carving that Kaiba knew, displaying he and Yugi as their ancient forms, duelling in a grand fight to the end, eternally carved in stone.
In the large stone sarcophagus that was before them, sat three glittering objects.
One was a golden ring, covered in spokes, and with a triangle marked with the eye of Horus in the centre, connecting to the circular main structure. Another was a thick tauk, also marked with the same eye, made of 19ct gold by the looks of it's robust nature. The final object was a thin rod, also with the eye, and two bat-wing decorations atop the sphere marked with Horus's symbol. Kaiba was drawn towards it, and he heard Bakura following suit, as they stepped towards it. The chamber containing the items had never been known, but it was assumed to be known to the tomb keepers.
Could it be, that the power of the items they had could move a whole chamber? From what they had seen so far, it wouldn't surprise them. Pegasus and Victor stepped beside them as they leaned down to pick up the glimmering golden objects. Kaiba and Bakura's eyes were now glazed over, almost in trances, as they sweated and turned pale, shaking and stuttering as the power they couldn't resist came near to them. Bakura slipped his fingernails under the ring, dislodging it from the tablet, stroking the smooth relic that was a perfect circle, and it was his. All his. Kaiba slipped his fingers under the rod, picking it up, fondling it in his grip, feeling the cold metal warm in his clammy grasp. He had seen it held by so many, and now he knew his competition was gone, it was his. All his. And no one would get it. Ever. He saw Bakura's sinister smirk beside him as the ring shrouded him in a sinister persona.
Corgi, Mai and Vivian awoke to find themselves in a large atrium, with only a single door to lead them through. It was dark and dingy, and smelt heavily of cigarette smoke and white rain shampoo, and each of them realised, on their own, that they had to go through that door.
“This is it…” Sighed Mai, pulling it open, walking into the warm firelight that burst through like the sunrise. Vivian followed, Corgi stepping in behind them, rubbing her arms furiously in the cold chamber, and suddenly warming up in the new hall. A familiar face turned to greet them, and Corgi gasped to see Pegasus J. Crawford for the first time.
“Hello there ladies.”
Jounouchi started things off, looking at Sugoroku's deck with an appearance of deep thought. It seemed to be hard work.
“I'll summon Panther Warrior in attack and set one card, ending my turn.”
The sleek black feline, erect in deep black armour, glared at Domingo as he played his pot of greed, drawing two cards.
“Now I'll activate this card.”
There was a sudden quiet as the ground splintered around them, a chunk of the stage was thrown away as the ring of diamond formed around them. If Corgi had come any earlier, she would have seen the ring disappear from around Isis's duel and take the deck, and life, of Ghoul away, just as the circle was now planning to do.
“This is the seal of Zork, and whichever duelist loses in this ring will be punished with death, their deck taken to the ritual room.”
Jounouchi cocked his head to the side.
“How come I didn't die last time?”
“It can only take one person. I believe Dinosaur Ryuzaki was taken instead.” Stated Domingo, his voice now more hoarse than before.
“Now, I'll summon my Goblin Attack Force ready to fight your panther warrior.”
As Domingo held up the card, the image appeared on the field in a blast of flame red light. Jounouchi shielded his eyes as the monster raced forward, slamming a heavy oak club against the skull of panther warrior with a sickening thud.
Jounouchi: 3700
“I'll set one card and end.”
As the soldiers crouched down into defence due to the effect, Jounouchi threw down his next card.
“I'll summon my marauding captain, allowing me to special summon my command knight.”
A thin warrior with a messy blonde hairdo, dressed in rusting iron armour, formed from the ground. Behind him, two delicate pale hands caressed his neck, revealing the female knight that also was summoned.
“Now I'll equip my marauding captain with my lightning blade.”
The warrior side-stepped away from the woman, pulled a long, glowing, vermilion broadsword from a hilt on his right hip.
“Now I'll equip command knight with big bang shot.” Snapped Joey, throwing down the spell.
The field around the woman burst up in fire, her face growing grim and dark, her arms covered in the power that had erupted around them.
“Thanks to my card, Command Knight's attack becomes 2000, and whenever it attacks a monster in defence mode, the damage is done directly to your life points as the difference between statistics.” Grinned the teenage duelist.
Jounouchi pointed at Goblin Attack Force, and with a surge of fire and speed, it was mutilated with a series of flaming sword slashes. The lady raised her arms once more, and with an inferno of power, Domingo was thrown against the wall.
Domingo: 2000
“Now my Marauding Captain will attack you…”
“Not so fast.” Snapped Domingo, picking a card from his deck and placing it down on the field. The floor around them suddenly became icy glass, the fire disappearing, the air becoming cold. Jounouchi wished he wasn't wearing a T-shirt and jeans as he looked at the new playing field.
“Thanks to my `mirror of desire' trap, whenever an equip card does damage to me, I can activate this, stopping all damage to my life points and attacking you instead. Thanks to command knight, your captain has 1600 attack, meaning you'll go down to 2100 life points.”
Jounouchi gasped as his warrior's attack smashed against him, instead of his opponent.
“Why… did it… do that…” Groaned Jounouchi, clasping his chest as a warm blood seeped from the fresh cut.
“Due to the mirror of desire, it reflects the deepest passion of any card you play. Marauding Captain's greatest desire is to keep the world balanced, by fighting, which doesn't make much sense, but I'm not one to complain. And because your life points were higher than mine, marauding captain attacks you. Of course, that effect isn't the same with every monster, but you'll learn as we go along.” Snapped the tall bulky duelist, drawing a card.
“Now I'll remove my destroyed goblins from play to special summon my gigantes.”
The mirror released a torrent of silver liquid, forming into a bulky ogre that smashed open the roof of the hall, holding a tree trunk as if it were a penknife in his grasp.
“Now I can use it's special effect, to destroy all magic and trap cards on your side of the field.”
“That isn't the effect of gigantes!” Snapped Jounouchi. “When it's summoned, it destroys ALL magic and trap cards.”
And then he saw the mirror of desire. (Author's note: I know that's not gigantes's real effect) and realised it was just another effect of the heart of the monster helping it.
“Now I can summon another monster, so I'll take this berserk gorilla from my hand and summon it to the arena.”
Beside the gigantic earth creature appeared a significantly shorter primate, beating the muscular chest that was the only part of it's torso not covered in fur.
“Now my berserk gorilla and Gigantes, destroy his Marauding Captain and Command Knight!”
Jounouchi was winded as the two warriors were thrown against him, shattering apart as his life points clocked down by 600.
Jounouchi: 1500 life points.
“I'll set one card and end.”
Jounouchi stumbled up from where he had just fallen, picking another card from his deck, gasping for warm air and not getting any.
“I'll activate polymerisation on the two cards in my hand, alligator sword and baby dragon, and then de-fuse them.”
The two spells formed on the field, only to negate each other, forming into the wyvern dressed in dark armour and the cute orange reptile with a sinister wry grin spread across it's face.
“Now I'll use monster reborn, bringing back my command knight.” Stated Jounouchi, activating his final spell.
“So what? None of your monsters can destroy my gigantes or my gorilla.”
“I wasn't planning to attack with my monsters Domingo. Now, I'll tribute all three of them to summon my most powerful tribute monster.”
Jounouchi raised the card in the air, and suddenly, the glass cracked and shattered. The storm of shards rose around Jounouchi and Domingo, until they spiralled into one final crescendo in the sky, and created a tall warrior dressed in spice orange and yellow armour. His face was grim and stern, and around him crackled a circle of thunder. Lightning burst from the sky as Jounouchi smiled at his opponent, who was surprisingly calm.
“Now my Gilford the Lightning is on the field, it destroys both your berserk gorilla and your Gigantes.”
The ring of thunder began to expand out, surrounding the entire arena floor, destroying the two monsters in a massive explosion of light and electricity.
“You haven't won yet Mr. Katsuya, as thanks to my monsters being destroyed, like last time, diamond wall allows me to take two spell or trap cards from my deck or hand and play them to the field. So say hello to my ziggurat of ruby and my relic of sapphire.”
Everyone fell silent as the thunder ceased. The ground cracked open twice more, the first time around both Jounouchi and Domingo, sending them high into the air where the earth titan had smashed the ceiling open. The wall grew with them, as Domingo's face became shallow, shaded and sinister. The tower stopped growing, a final roof-top shrine being formed from the red material, creating a glittering arena for their final face off. As Jounouchi got ready to replay his attack, a glittering blue sphere, like an encased gem of the ocean itself, formed in front of it's owner. The clouds were flying past them, birds hooting above their heads. The stadium was certainly a dramatic one.
“So you think that changes anything? Gilford, attack him now!”
The wind howled in pain as the warrior burst through it, chasing over the slippery gemstone floor to attack Domingo, only to hit the face down card.
“Temper, temper.” Sniggered the malevolent duelist, flipping up his face down card.
“Not mirror force!” Gasped Jounouchi as he saw the wall of clear glass build up and block the attack.
“Foolish boy. Victor has blessed me with the power of the gem trinity, and in turn the deck to take down you, one of the most fearsome duelists in the history of the game.”
The blonde boy wasn't sure whether to take this as an insult or a compliment, and shrugged it off, setting a card and ending.
“I'll activate the special ability of my sapphire relic.” Announced Jounouchi's opponent, holding his hand over the spell card.
“Which does?” Pouted Jounouchi, leaning back a bit.
“Whenever I destroy one of your monsters, I'm allowed to special summon one monster of the same tribute amount from my deck.”
“That really doesn't impress me.” Replied the student.
“You realise Gilford required three tributes, correct?”
Jounouchi thought that over in his head.
Three star tributes? Aren't many of them…
And then it hit him. He went pale, scrabbling through his deck, looking for the card he needed, if he had one. Domingo though, had already placed the card down, and with a shattering roar, the explosion of the tower, and a last scream, the duel was over.
Anzu was beginning to worry. Jounouchi still hadn't won, and he was better than Otogi. She felt the wall, only for it to shatter at her grasp. She screamed and fell back.
“The game is over.” Announced Johnny, setting up his duel disk.
“What do you mean?” Rasped Anzu, turning to him.
“I mean…”
Johnny pointed at the sky, at the shattering shards of blue, red and white. Among them fell the bodies of Domingo and Jounouchi, both of their life points at 0.
“How did that happen?” Gasped the young woman, watching with baited breath as they crashed through the stage in an explosion of gemstone, sawdust and splinters.
“The power of god crushed their life for not being worthy.”
Anzu turned to her rival and saw a fierce look had appeared in his eyes. He walked over to Domingo, plucking cards from his deck, and placing them, shockingly, on air.
“Your friend's life has been spared, but Domingo's has not been. That fool didn't expect Obelisk to do that to him… No one does, and only the true messiahs can.”
Anzu heard none of this, noticing Otogi had been knocked down by a shower of rubble and debris. She and Johnny were the only people left in the hall still standing.
“Now, let us duel.”
The three women looked at Pegasus from across the tablet, a look of pure malice in their eyes.
“It's good to see you with us, of course. I'm sure you no doubt know our next visitor.” Beamed Mr. Crawford, and a slab doorway opened up, similar to the one they had entered, to show Isis, misty eyed step over to them. She leaned over, dislodging the tauk from it's spot, and placed it around her neck, a feint glimmer of power erupting from the hollow crevices of the Horus eye.
“Isis?” Stammered Mai, who edged towards her. As Mai tried to touch her team mate's shoulder, she felt a strange energy wind her as she was thrown back into a group of scientists.
“Don't bother my dear, she can't hear you in this trance.” Sighed Pegasus, embracing Isis around the neck and kissing her neck.
“Wouldn't she recoil if I did that in real life? She didn't there, did she? Face it, she's possessed.”
Victor silently slipped into the door Isis had entered from for a reason none of them knew. The silent forms of Ryuzaki, Mokuba and Horus walked up.
“Horus!” Gasped Corgi, throwing her arms around the lifeless body that stood before her. His mouth was slightly open, and he didn't very little, until he grasped her cardigan, throwing her away from him, as she cracked her head on the side of the sennen item tablet.
“What the hell was that for?” Roared Vivian, picking him up by the scruff of his neck. As soon as she did, Mokuba and Ryuzaki stepped behind her, grabbing her shirt as she was dragged backwards by them, screaming in anger. She didn't have long to worry though, as Honda leapt forward, kicking away Mokuba and Ryuzaki with a roundhouse kick. It was then that the rod fell from Kaiba's grasp. Bakura still hadn't moved, still fondling the ring in his hands, and Pegasus gasped as he heard the sharp clatter on the floor as the rod hit against it, and Kaiba whirled Honda round.
“Why the hell did you hit my brother, idiot?” Roared Kaiba, a few drops of spit splashing against Honda's face as he turned from the roaring man before him.
“He's a lifeless body currently, Kaiba. He tried to attack Vivian. I wasn't precisely worrying about hitting someone with no heart, soul or spirit.”
Seto loosened his grip of Honda's shoulders, and for the first time, they saw the Kaiba Corporation CEO cry. It was slow to start with, a few tears slipping down his face to splatter on the floor. The scientists all stopped, as did Pegasus, as the young man fell, wailing, to the ground, pounding the earth with his fist.
“Kaiba, I'm sorry…” Sighed Honda, making sure to eliminate the option it was something he had said.
“Mokuba doesn't need to have been dragged into this. He merely tried to save Bakura. Why is he in this situation?” Roared Seto, turning to Pegasus.
“To be frank Kaiba Boy, even if I could bring back his life, I couldn't. It wasn't my choice, it was Victor's. I merely got them from your mansion after we possessed you. Victor offered their lives to that urn over there, so he made them into puppets of his magic and left them to serve him. Horus, he did the same to many years ago.”
Kaiba looked at Pegasus, who was now also in tears.
“How do you know that boy was effected?”
Horus Fletcher was still standing still by the unconscious form of Corgi, no emotion on his face.
“Because… he's my son…” Sobbed Pegasus.
Pierre LeBlanc and Ushebti Papyrus were tired of waiting. The door had been tempting them for the last hour now, and they still hadn't walked through it.
Sod patience.
Pierre swept around, his cloak billowing out behind him, as he swept through the door to the main atrium, or what he had been told was. Ushebti groaned, running a hand through her sandy blonde hair.
“Why me…” She groaned, stepping into the hall.
Neither of them expected to see the group that welcomed them. Well, maybe not welcomed, but was there before them, all the same. Pegasus J. Crawford, their team member, was wallowing about his family, while Seto Kaiba dried his own eyes. Mokuba Kaiba and Dinosaur Ryuzaki were both looking lifeless, standing towards a gigantic urn, almost like a cauldron, towards the end of the room. Vivian Wong and Hiroto Honda, two duelists that were mainly known for their second fiddle parts in the press story of Katsuya Jounouchi and Mai Valentine, were standing beside the knocked out form of the aforementioned Blonde press phenomenon. A young girl, Corgi McDougall, and her fiancée Horus Fletcher, both protégés of the Duel Monster game in Scotland, and recently in Japan, were both by a strange tablet they'd seen in textbooks at their various schools, the girl sprawled out on the stone floor, the boy a lifeless body, standing between Pegasus (who was now in a hysteric sobbing fit) and Corgi's still corpse. Behind the tablet, still and staring at the sennen ring in his hand, was Ryou Bakura, a little known duelist connected to Battle City and the accidents that had happened a few years ago, in connection with a strange occurrence at the Domino Museum. The two of them weren't precisely shocked, Victor's base wasn't known for being plain and bland, not least the people that came, but it was still surprising to see such contrasting faces in the same place. They couldn't help but just stand there, watching the absurd scene around them.
Honda couldn't take this anymore. They needed to get out. He was getting tired and dehydrated, and before long he would be in the same position as Corgi or Mai, collapsed on the floor. Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he clicked on Jounouchi's number.
“This phone is currently out of use. Please try again.”
Honda swore as he clicked on Anzu's number.
“This phone is currently out of use. Please try again.”
Of course, he didn't know that both of their phones were lying broken in the hall, one in the ruins of a stage, the second in the ruins of a handbag.
Honda felt like smashing the phone, and realised that he had to try one of the numbers he was sure wouldn't be busy. The phone rang, and he had to hold in a cry of relief when the quavering voice came from the other side.
“Hello.”
“Hey there Espa.” Grinned Honda.
Honda didn't see Pegasus, stumbling over to his two team mates, and passing them a card key, whispering something into their ears as Ushebti nodded and the two of them walked over to the scientists.
“It's a damn good thing I'm rich.” Snapped Siegfried, pushing the stick forward in the cockpit of his helicopter. The large army style chopper, bought from Kaiba Corporation at a recent auction, had been used many a time to carry people like Amelda and Ryuzaki around after having their souls stolen.
There would have been a sense of déjà vu for any of the others who had been here, either unconscious or worried for the future for the earth, on their quest to find Paradise only a few years ago. Leon was sitting in the main hold, with Espa and his brothers, duelling in the confined space they did.
As Jinzo (Espa had only just managed to get a second) obliterated Red Riding Hood with a ball of black lightning, they felt the helicopter descend to the ground, landing with a thud on the grass of the woody area they were now in.
“Where did Honda say he was?” Sighed the pink haired duelist, holding a hand against his brow like a salute to shade his eyes from the non-existent sun as he tried to see where, if he was there, Honda was.
“He said he was in the NightDuel HQ.”
“IN the HQ?” Sighed Leon, glad they had landed inside the impregnable gates.
“Yep.” Grinned Espa's oldest brother, as they looked at the main door, sure it was where their friend was.
“Let's go.” Snapped one of the younger Roba boys, sliding the door open as the others followed.
~ Never known to soothe ~
Isis and Corgi were now worn down, and neither was going to give up. Hysteric Angel, Airknight Parshath (1900) Duster Brownie (1500), Pixie Mirror (100) and Zolga (1700) were staring down Corgi's Amazoness Paladin (1900), Amazoness Tiger (1900) and Skull Dog Marron (1350) were all as fierce. It was a close duel, with Isis at 3700 and Corgi still with a full 4000… but not for long.
“Thanks to Paladin's special ability, it gains 100 for every Amazoness on my field, so it also goes up to 1900 to match my Amazoness Tiger.”
Isis looked at the three cards in her hand. She picked up one of the spells and placed it down on the field gingerly.
“I'll activate my spirit of the knight and double attack magic cards.” Snapped Isis. From the sky above her, a stream of golden rain fell in a ring around her monsters. Then, Parshath picked a second sword from a hilt on it's left thigh, holding it up to the amazon militia before him.
“My spirit of the knight magic cards means that when I attack with a monster of the same attack as yours, my monster survives the stalemate. Meanwhile, my double attack allows me to attack your monsters twice. And thanks to Pixie Mirror's effect, I can increase the attack of one monster on my side of the field by 500. So Zolga will raise it's attack to 2200.”
As the centaur got ready to charge, the mirror cast off the fairy, who embraced Zolga's neck as the attack clocked up.
“So now my Parshath will attack both your paladin and tiger, destroying them without me taking any disadvantage.”
The lady and her tiger were shattered by the twin swords of the angelic warrior, and Corgi gasped as Zolga swooped, like an overgrown bat, over the bone canine to destroy it in a single blast.
“Due to the effect of double attack, I have to discard one card from my hand if I use the effect. So I'll discard my elf avatar, which gives me 300 life points for every monster I destroyed this turn.”
Isis felt a warm glow caress her skin through the rain, and her life points increased to 4600.
“Your move Corgi.”
The girl brushed back a couple of auburn locks, straightening her hair band as she pulled the card from her deck. She sneered and placed the card down.
“I'll activate card of sanctity, which makes us draw until we both have six cards in hand.”
Both of them picked up cards to add to their hands.
“I'll use my polymerisation magic card to fuse the artificial dog marron in my hand, the bone dog marron in my hand and the outstanding dog marron in my hand, to special summon Cerberus in attack mode. Next, I'll use my serial spell, to reactivate polymerisation, fusing the gazelle and bafomet in my cemetery to summon chimera.”
Five glowing lights burst from the duel disk, forming two monsters on the field.
“You may be wondering how I was able to fuse from the cemetery? Well, my cerberus allows me to use any monsters in my cemetery as if they were my hand, but I must pay 600 life points for each I use.”
Corgi's life points fell by 1200, going to 2800, and she looked at her two new dogs on the field.
“Now I'll use Cerberus' other ability. By discarding my entire hand, I can special summon up to three monsters with the word `marron' in the name to the field and search out one spell with the same word in it. So I'll search out a third skull dog, another artificial and another outstanding dog marron, and then take out my spell card Marron's natural release.”
Corgi threw her hand into the cemetery, picking up her spell and placing it on the field as the robot canine, bone golem dog and fluffy brown puppy emerged on the field. As the spell took place, all three monsters grew in stature, wild looks appearing on their usually mellow faces.
“Thanks to my card's effect, as long as all three of my dogs are on the field, they get a new attack of 2000.”
Isis looked at her hand. She had only one option.
“Now, my Outstanding dog marron, destroy Airknight Parshath.”
The now enormous hound leapt at the horseman, digging it's teeth deep into the monster's fleshy left leg. The monster shattered apart, and Corgi grinned, only to see her life points drop to 2400.
“What in the world…”
“You triggered the special ability of my pixie mirror again. I can use it even in your turn, so I paid another 500 to increase the attack of Parshath, and let you attack a mirror image of it.”
The dog turned to see a far larger creature than it had just devoured appear and behead it with a firm sword strike. Corgi groaned in anger.
“Fine then, my Skull Dog will attack Zolga.”
The beast leapt at the machine, smashing it apart in a matter of seconds.
“I may lose 300 life points, but I gain 2000 from Zolga's effect, meaning I have a 1700 life point increase.”
Isis's life points raised a further 1700 to 7300.
“Now that your pixie mirror's defence is lowered then, my cerberus will destroy it, and you take 1300 damage due to the difference between attack and defence.”
Isis had forgotten that for the attack boosts she had given, her mirror's defence lowered, and she fell to 5000, and also to her knees.
“Now your hysteric angel is next, and my chimera will destroy it with a total attack of 2100, dealing a further 300 damage to your life points.”
Isis moaned as she felt her angel explode before her, and her life points fell to 4700.
“And now my artificial dog marron will destroy your duster brownie, leaving you with 4200 life points.”
As Isis saw her health clock down, she felt winded by the pounding of the dog's metal head against her chest.
“Now I end, and due to my spell card, all three of my marron dogs are destroyed.”
Isis drew her seventh card.
“It's over, Corgi.” She said, simply. The girl didn't answer. She wasn't giving up now.
“I still have two monsters on the field. I highly doubt it.”
Yep, she's like Mai alright…
Isis placed down her spell.
“I activate my shinato ark, discarding toon gemini elf and mystical elf to summon shinato, king of a higher plane.”
A large wooden boat appeared before the two women, and with an explosion of light, a tall man, covered in fine golden robes and with midnight blue skin, emerged beside the centaur paladin.
“Now I use my God's final order card, allowing me to special summon the two cards I used to summon Shinato, bringing back Mystical Elf and Toon Gemini. Then, I tribute Mystical Elf and Toon Gemini to summon Guardian Angel Joan.”
As her spell faded away, two orbs of light flew into the air, forming into a set of earrings that were attached to a set of delicate ears. A short crop of ginger hair flapped wildly in the wind, long white robes bellowing out like a torn flag in the mad rainstorm. Corgi began to wail, covering her eyes with a cardigan sleeves, crying into them.
“You hurt my sweet Horus and now you do the same to me…” Sobbed Corgi, clasping her breast as she fell to the ground.
“What do you mean I hurt your sweet Horus? I never did anything to him!”
“You liar! I saw him over by the trash cans with the dent in his chest.”
Isis's eyes widened in shock.
“Don't try and hide it any longer you stupid lady, you did that to him!”
“No… I didn't…” Sighed Isis, wiping a tear from her eye.
“But I know who did.”
Corgi looked up at Isis, and grinned, got ready to accept her fate.
“Now, Guardian Angel Joan will destroy Chimera, doing 700 damage to your life points and lowering you to 1700.”
The beautiful angelic lady swept a rapier past the khaki beast, destroying it.
“Now, Shinato, attack Cerberus, doing 900 further damage.” Announced Isis, swinging her hand forward to announce the attack. A ring of light burst from the man's cupped hands, and the canine was engulfed in a bright light, sending it to the cemetery.
“And finally, airknight parshath, deal the final blow.”
Corgi shut her eyes as the sword sliced her chest with a sharp wind. She collapsed in a blubbering heap.
“The person who did that to your lover is no friend of mine, but I do know who it is. He used an ancient magical relic to visit the soul of your sweetheart Horus and control him like a mind puppet.” Said Iris, soothingly, rubbing a hand up and down Corgi's back.
Corgi looked up at Isis, finding it hard to believe.
“I know you don't believe me, but it's true. I promise. The thing is, I have no idea how he's here or where `here' is. But I promise we'll find him.”
Corgi began crying again, embracing Isis's neck. The two of them sat in the rain, cooing to each other like sisters, forgetting the forms behind them for just a minute, as they found new friends.
Kaiba had now stopped looking at Mokuba and had turned to see Ryuzaki.
“How… how can he be here when he was in the infirmary? I saw on the system today he had been duelling with his team, and yet… is there two of them?”
Pegasus chuckled as he showed a card he was holding.
“My eye can do more than magic tricks Kaiba Boy. Thanks to it's power from Yami No Games, it can make cards come real, and my precious doppleganger has allowed me to do that. This here, is the real Ryuzaki, but wherever the other is, he's merely a copy.”
“But why. Why did you want him?” Asked Bakura, butting in.
“It's a fairly simple reason, actually. I need all the cards I can get to help summon Zorc by channelling the Ka out of them, and Ryuzaki just happens to be a mediocre duelist, meaning I get a decent supply of cards easily, but still good ones.”
Honda was looking at Mokuba and the boy, who was just as lifeless as ever.
“And why are they here? Godammit Pegasus, they're only children!” Snapped Honda, throwing himself in front of the others.
“Mokuba's deck happened to contain rather potent monsters. And Horus had a little card I happened to need.”
“And that would be?” Asked Kaiba, hoping he had the card to barter with Pegasus.
“Your brother has the envoys, very useful indeed, and of course rare, while Fletcher Boy happens to hold Reshef, one of the demi-gods.”
“Demi-gods?” Asked Bakura, remembering being attacked by Osiris back on battle ship for a brief second.
“Indeed. Horus, Nephtys, Reshef and the Creator. Each of them is held by a particular duelist, and luckily, I happen to have all four in easy reach.”
“What do you mean?” Replied Honda, ready to start fighting if Pegasus got too far out of hand.
“My team mates happen to hold Nephtys and Horus due to the lives they lead. I myself hold the creator for obvious reasons. The two birds of fire are kept by two families that I myself have never quite got along with, they were noisy, annoying and stuck up brats if ever I'd meet any.” Spat Pegasus.
“A bit like you then.” Retorted Kaiba, edging towards Mokuba, to feel his limbs snap together again.
“Easy Kaiba Boy. You are here, of course, because you have a connect with ancient egyptian history and can tap into the power of sennen items we cannot possess. All of the items are here, except for the puzzle, but no matter. When Yugi enters the finals of this tournament, we'll make sure to steal it.”
Kaiba remembered seeing himself hold the rod, and his supposed ancient father having the eye. Of course, Pegasus had got the eye back, and that Victor person had been able to take two of them, so with the Tauk and Ring left, all they needed was Isis and Bakura. And of course Yugi, but they had plans for him already.
“As you know, Bakura also can hold the ring, and this time, it's the real one. And of course, Isis will be coming soon, due to what we did to her brother and his annoying friend.”
Victor now returned from the compound, and lead everyone silently into the main building. They travelled down a long stairwell, stopping at the bottom to face a large stone door. Opening it up, the three hostages had to contain their horror.
Isis never liked late night phone calls, but she and Corgi had to follow this one. It had come from a rather mysterious voice, which she was sure she recognised. They had been told to go to the main toll bridge at the Eastern Domino Highway, and she had obliged, catching a bus that happened to be going in that direction. Although she desperately needed to wash her hair and do her make-up again thanks to the rain making it cascade down her face, she somehow felt this was important. You can take the sennen item from the person, but you can't take the person from the sennen item, and Isis still had those dangerous instincts that things would effect her, or what she would draw next in a duel would be important.
She had left Corgi to guard the others at the tables, and received another call (damn teenagers) to tell her Horus had disappeared and that the others were waking up.
The bus halted at the toll bridge, and Isis got off, paid her fare, and stepped over to the far end of the bridge, not too far from her stop, and followed what the instructions had said, and looked down to the river below. She didn't know precisely what happened next. A sharp stab burned through her back, her vision went black, and she fell, down, down, down…
Corgi shivered for the umpteenth time as she looked about her. Mai and Vivian had now begun to wake, their eyes hazy and their memories foggy. Haga had also woken up, and had been perfectly alert, already stumbling home. Ghoul however, wasn't doing anything. Corgi reckoned she had little need to check on him though, and instead put Mai and Vivian out into the rain to try and wake them up. She figured it may act like a cold shower, or something of the sort. It took about half an hour for the two of them to finally fully awake, both of them needing to be filled in about what had happened. They were glad to find themselves with seven item cards apiece now, but Isis had seemed far less bothered, and when asked by the two ladies as to where Isis was, Corgi could only say she had been told to go to the toll bridge on the Eastern Highway.
“Isis isn't a rash person. She'll be fine.” Said Mai, leaning back in her chair. Vivian looked at her in an exasperated manner. She never did get to express her opinion though, as, rather unexpectedly, they felt their navels being tugged, and getting to glance back at a melting form of Ryuzaki, they disappeared in a flash of light. The doppelganger returned to it's original form, and disappeared to reunite with his card.
Even Pegasus and Victor seemed shocked at the sight of the room, and they should have been. It wasn't your ordinary hall. The room was made of a crumbling stone, standing up on once elegant pillars was a rough ceiling, blanking out the night sky completely.
Around them, hundreds of duel monster cards were encased on the walls, each in labelled display boxes, and in each were the decks of various duellists, pegged up to the whitewashed backs. Hundreds more empty boxes spread down the far side of the chamber, while people in long white robes bustled about, checking large machines, all circling what seemed to be an enormous indigo urn, bubbling with acid lime liquid. Just a few feet away, in between the doorway and the computer systems, was a large stone tomb, circled with ring-like inscriptions.
Standing behind that was the carving that Kaiba knew, displaying he and Yugi as their ancient forms, duelling in a grand fight to the end, eternally carved in stone.
In the large stone sarcophagus that was before them, sat three glittering objects.
One was a golden ring, covered in spokes, and with a triangle marked with the eye of Horus in the centre, connecting to the circular main structure. Another was a thick tauk, also marked with the same eye, made of 19ct gold by the looks of it's robust nature. The final object was a thin rod, also with the eye, and two bat-wing decorations atop the sphere marked with Horus's symbol. Kaiba was drawn towards it, and he heard Bakura following suit, as they stepped towards it. The chamber containing the items had never been known, but it was assumed to be known to the tomb keepers.
Could it be, that the power of the items they had could move a whole chamber? From what they had seen so far, it wouldn't surprise them. Pegasus and Victor stepped beside them as they leaned down to pick up the glimmering golden objects. Kaiba and Bakura's eyes were now glazed over, almost in trances, as they sweated and turned pale, shaking and stuttering as the power they couldn't resist came near to them. Bakura slipped his fingernails under the ring, dislodging it from the tablet, stroking the smooth relic that was a perfect circle, and it was his. All his. Kaiba slipped his fingers under the rod, picking it up, fondling it in his grip, feeling the cold metal warm in his clammy grasp. He had seen it held by so many, and now he knew his competition was gone, it was his. All his. And no one would get it. Ever. He saw Bakura's sinister smirk beside him as the ring shrouded him in a sinister persona.
Corgi, Mai and Vivian awoke to find themselves in a large atrium, with only a single door to lead them through. It was dark and dingy, and smelt heavily of cigarette smoke and white rain shampoo, and each of them realised, on their own, that they had to go through that door.
“This is it…” Sighed Mai, pulling it open, walking into the warm firelight that burst through like the sunrise. Vivian followed, Corgi stepping in behind them, rubbing her arms furiously in the cold chamber, and suddenly warming up in the new hall. A familiar face turned to greet them, and Corgi gasped to see Pegasus J. Crawford for the first time.
“Hello there ladies.”
Jounouchi started things off, looking at Sugoroku's deck with an appearance of deep thought. It seemed to be hard work.
“I'll summon Panther Warrior in attack and set one card, ending my turn.”
The sleek black feline, erect in deep black armour, glared at Domingo as he played his pot of greed, drawing two cards.
“Now I'll activate this card.”
There was a sudden quiet as the ground splintered around them, a chunk of the stage was thrown away as the ring of diamond formed around them. If Corgi had come any earlier, she would have seen the ring disappear from around Isis's duel and take the deck, and life, of Ghoul away, just as the circle was now planning to do.
“This is the seal of Zork, and whichever duelist loses in this ring will be punished with death, their deck taken to the ritual room.”
Jounouchi cocked his head to the side.
“How come I didn't die last time?”
“It can only take one person. I believe Dinosaur Ryuzaki was taken instead.” Stated Domingo, his voice now more hoarse than before.
“Now, I'll summon my Goblin Attack Force ready to fight your panther warrior.”
As Domingo held up the card, the image appeared on the field in a blast of flame red light. Jounouchi shielded his eyes as the monster raced forward, slamming a heavy oak club against the skull of panther warrior with a sickening thud.
Jounouchi: 3700
“I'll set one card and end.”
As the soldiers crouched down into defence due to the effect, Jounouchi threw down his next card.
“I'll summon my marauding captain, allowing me to special summon my command knight.”
A thin warrior with a messy blonde hairdo, dressed in rusting iron armour, formed from the ground. Behind him, two delicate pale hands caressed his neck, revealing the female knight that also was summoned.
“Now I'll equip my marauding captain with my lightning blade.”
The warrior side-stepped away from the woman, pulled a long, glowing, vermilion broadsword from a hilt on his right hip.
“Now I'll equip command knight with big bang shot.” Snapped Joey, throwing down the spell.
The field around the woman burst up in fire, her face growing grim and dark, her arms covered in the power that had erupted around them.
“Thanks to my card, Command Knight's attack becomes 2000, and whenever it attacks a monster in defence mode, the damage is done directly to your life points as the difference between statistics.” Grinned the teenage duelist.
Jounouchi pointed at Goblin Attack Force, and with a surge of fire and speed, it was mutilated with a series of flaming sword slashes. The lady raised her arms once more, and with an inferno of power, Domingo was thrown against the wall.
Domingo: 2000
“Now my Marauding Captain will attack you…”
“Not so fast.” Snapped Domingo, picking a card from his deck and placing it down on the field. The floor around them suddenly became icy glass, the fire disappearing, the air becoming cold. Jounouchi wished he wasn't wearing a T-shirt and jeans as he looked at the new playing field.
“Thanks to my `mirror of desire' trap, whenever an equip card does damage to me, I can activate this, stopping all damage to my life points and attacking you instead. Thanks to command knight, your captain has 1600 attack, meaning you'll go down to 2100 life points.”
Jounouchi gasped as his warrior's attack smashed against him, instead of his opponent.
“Why… did it… do that…” Groaned Jounouchi, clasping his chest as a warm blood seeped from the fresh cut.
“Due to the mirror of desire, it reflects the deepest passion of any card you play. Marauding Captain's greatest desire is to keep the world balanced, by fighting, which doesn't make much sense, but I'm not one to complain. And because your life points were higher than mine, marauding captain attacks you. Of course, that effect isn't the same with every monster, but you'll learn as we go along.” Snapped the tall bulky duelist, drawing a card.
“Now I'll remove my destroyed goblins from play to special summon my gigantes.”
The mirror released a torrent of silver liquid, forming into a bulky ogre that smashed open the roof of the hall, holding a tree trunk as if it were a penknife in his grasp.
“Now I can use it's special effect, to destroy all magic and trap cards on your side of the field.”
“That isn't the effect of gigantes!” Snapped Jounouchi. “When it's summoned, it destroys ALL magic and trap cards.”
And then he saw the mirror of desire. (Author's note: I know that's not gigantes's real effect) and realised it was just another effect of the heart of the monster helping it.
“Now I can summon another monster, so I'll take this berserk gorilla from my hand and summon it to the arena.”
Beside the gigantic earth creature appeared a significantly shorter primate, beating the muscular chest that was the only part of it's torso not covered in fur.
“Now my berserk gorilla and Gigantes, destroy his Marauding Captain and Command Knight!”
Jounouchi was winded as the two warriors were thrown against him, shattering apart as his life points clocked down by 600.
Jounouchi: 1500 life points.
“I'll set one card and end.”
Jounouchi stumbled up from where he had just fallen, picking another card from his deck, gasping for warm air and not getting any.
“I'll activate polymerisation on the two cards in my hand, alligator sword and baby dragon, and then de-fuse them.”
The two spells formed on the field, only to negate each other, forming into the wyvern dressed in dark armour and the cute orange reptile with a sinister wry grin spread across it's face.
“Now I'll use monster reborn, bringing back my command knight.” Stated Jounouchi, activating his final spell.
“So what? None of your monsters can destroy my gigantes or my gorilla.”
“I wasn't planning to attack with my monsters Domingo. Now, I'll tribute all three of them to summon my most powerful tribute monster.”
Jounouchi raised the card in the air, and suddenly, the glass cracked and shattered. The storm of shards rose around Jounouchi and Domingo, until they spiralled into one final crescendo in the sky, and created a tall warrior dressed in spice orange and yellow armour. His face was grim and stern, and around him crackled a circle of thunder. Lightning burst from the sky as Jounouchi smiled at his opponent, who was surprisingly calm.
“Now my Gilford the Lightning is on the field, it destroys both your berserk gorilla and your Gigantes.”
The ring of thunder began to expand out, surrounding the entire arena floor, destroying the two monsters in a massive explosion of light and electricity.
“You haven't won yet Mr. Katsuya, as thanks to my monsters being destroyed, like last time, diamond wall allows me to take two spell or trap cards from my deck or hand and play them to the field. So say hello to my ziggurat of ruby and my relic of sapphire.”
Everyone fell silent as the thunder ceased. The ground cracked open twice more, the first time around both Jounouchi and Domingo, sending them high into the air where the earth titan had smashed the ceiling open. The wall grew with them, as Domingo's face became shallow, shaded and sinister. The tower stopped growing, a final roof-top shrine being formed from the red material, creating a glittering arena for their final face off. As Jounouchi got ready to replay his attack, a glittering blue sphere, like an encased gem of the ocean itself, formed in front of it's owner. The clouds were flying past them, birds hooting above their heads. The stadium was certainly a dramatic one.
“So you think that changes anything? Gilford, attack him now!”
The wind howled in pain as the warrior burst through it, chasing over the slippery gemstone floor to attack Domingo, only to hit the face down card.
“Temper, temper.” Sniggered the malevolent duelist, flipping up his face down card.
“Not mirror force!” Gasped Jounouchi as he saw the wall of clear glass build up and block the attack.
“Foolish boy. Victor has blessed me with the power of the gem trinity, and in turn the deck to take down you, one of the most fearsome duelists in the history of the game.”
The blonde boy wasn't sure whether to take this as an insult or a compliment, and shrugged it off, setting a card and ending.
“I'll activate the special ability of my sapphire relic.” Announced Jounouchi's opponent, holding his hand over the spell card.
“Which does?” Pouted Jounouchi, leaning back a bit.
“Whenever I destroy one of your monsters, I'm allowed to special summon one monster of the same tribute amount from my deck.”
“That really doesn't impress me.” Replied the student.
“You realise Gilford required three tributes, correct?”
Jounouchi thought that over in his head.
Three star tributes? Aren't many of them…
And then it hit him. He went pale, scrabbling through his deck, looking for the card he needed, if he had one. Domingo though, had already placed the card down, and with a shattering roar, the explosion of the tower, and a last scream, the duel was over.
Anzu was beginning to worry. Jounouchi still hadn't won, and he was better than Otogi. She felt the wall, only for it to shatter at her grasp. She screamed and fell back.
“The game is over.” Announced Johnny, setting up his duel disk.
“What do you mean?” Rasped Anzu, turning to him.
“I mean…”
Johnny pointed at the sky, at the shattering shards of blue, red and white. Among them fell the bodies of Domingo and Jounouchi, both of their life points at 0.
“How did that happen?” Gasped the young woman, watching with baited breath as they crashed through the stage in an explosion of gemstone, sawdust and splinters.
“The power of god crushed their life for not being worthy.”
Anzu turned to her rival and saw a fierce look had appeared in his eyes. He walked over to Domingo, plucking cards from his deck, and placing them, shockingly, on air.
“Your friend's life has been spared, but Domingo's has not been. That fool didn't expect Obelisk to do that to him… No one does, and only the true messiahs can.”
Anzu heard none of this, noticing Otogi had been knocked down by a shower of rubble and debris. She and Johnny were the only people left in the hall still standing.
“Now, let us duel.”
The three women looked at Pegasus from across the tablet, a look of pure malice in their eyes.
“It's good to see you with us, of course. I'm sure you no doubt know our next visitor.” Beamed Mr. Crawford, and a slab doorway opened up, similar to the one they had entered, to show Isis, misty eyed step over to them. She leaned over, dislodging the tauk from it's spot, and placed it around her neck, a feint glimmer of power erupting from the hollow crevices of the Horus eye.
“Isis?” Stammered Mai, who edged towards her. As Mai tried to touch her team mate's shoulder, she felt a strange energy wind her as she was thrown back into a group of scientists.
“Don't bother my dear, she can't hear you in this trance.” Sighed Pegasus, embracing Isis around the neck and kissing her neck.
“Wouldn't she recoil if I did that in real life? She didn't there, did she? Face it, she's possessed.”
Victor silently slipped into the door Isis had entered from for a reason none of them knew. The silent forms of Ryuzaki, Mokuba and Horus walked up.
“Horus!” Gasped Corgi, throwing her arms around the lifeless body that stood before her. His mouth was slightly open, and he didn't very little, until he grasped her cardigan, throwing her away from him, as she cracked her head on the side of the sennen item tablet.
“What the hell was that for?” Roared Vivian, picking him up by the scruff of his neck. As soon as she did, Mokuba and Ryuzaki stepped behind her, grabbing her shirt as she was dragged backwards by them, screaming in anger. She didn't have long to worry though, as Honda leapt forward, kicking away Mokuba and Ryuzaki with a roundhouse kick. It was then that the rod fell from Kaiba's grasp. Bakura still hadn't moved, still fondling the ring in his hands, and Pegasus gasped as he heard the sharp clatter on the floor as the rod hit against it, and Kaiba whirled Honda round.
“Why the hell did you hit my brother, idiot?” Roared Kaiba, a few drops of spit splashing against Honda's face as he turned from the roaring man before him.
“He's a lifeless body currently, Kaiba. He tried to attack Vivian. I wasn't precisely worrying about hitting someone with no heart, soul or spirit.”
Seto loosened his grip of Honda's shoulders, and for the first time, they saw the Kaiba Corporation CEO cry. It was slow to start with, a few tears slipping down his face to splatter on the floor. The scientists all stopped, as did Pegasus, as the young man fell, wailing, to the ground, pounding the earth with his fist.
“Kaiba, I'm sorry…” Sighed Honda, making sure to eliminate the option it was something he had said.
“Mokuba doesn't need to have been dragged into this. He merely tried to save Bakura. Why is he in this situation?” Roared Seto, turning to Pegasus.
“To be frank Kaiba Boy, even if I could bring back his life, I couldn't. It wasn't my choice, it was Victor's. I merely got them from your mansion after we possessed you. Victor offered their lives to that urn over there, so he made them into puppets of his magic and left them to serve him. Horus, he did the same to many years ago.”
Kaiba looked at Pegasus, who was now also in tears.
“How do you know that boy was effected?”
Horus Fletcher was still standing still by the unconscious form of Corgi, no emotion on his face.
“Because… he's my son…” Sobbed Pegasus.
Pierre LeBlanc and Ushebti Papyrus were tired of waiting. The door had been tempting them for the last hour now, and they still hadn't walked through it.
Sod patience.
Pierre swept around, his cloak billowing out behind him, as he swept through the door to the main atrium, or what he had been told was. Ushebti groaned, running a hand through her sandy blonde hair.
“Why me…” She groaned, stepping into the hall.
Neither of them expected to see the group that welcomed them. Well, maybe not welcomed, but was there before them, all the same. Pegasus J. Crawford, their team member, was wallowing about his family, while Seto Kaiba dried his own eyes. Mokuba Kaiba and Dinosaur Ryuzaki were both looking lifeless, standing towards a gigantic urn, almost like a cauldron, towards the end of the room. Vivian Wong and Hiroto Honda, two duelists that were mainly known for their second fiddle parts in the press story of Katsuya Jounouchi and Mai Valentine, were standing beside the knocked out form of the aforementioned Blonde press phenomenon. A young girl, Corgi McDougall, and her fiancée Horus Fletcher, both protégés of the Duel Monster game in Scotland, and recently in Japan, were both by a strange tablet they'd seen in textbooks at their various schools, the girl sprawled out on the stone floor, the boy a lifeless body, standing between Pegasus (who was now in a hysteric sobbing fit) and Corgi's still corpse. Behind the tablet, still and staring at the sennen ring in his hand, was Ryou Bakura, a little known duelist connected to Battle City and the accidents that had happened a few years ago, in connection with a strange occurrence at the Domino Museum. The two of them weren't precisely shocked, Victor's base wasn't known for being plain and bland, not least the people that came, but it was still surprising to see such contrasting faces in the same place. They couldn't help but just stand there, watching the absurd scene around them.
Honda couldn't take this anymore. They needed to get out. He was getting tired and dehydrated, and before long he would be in the same position as Corgi or Mai, collapsed on the floor. Pulling his cell phone from his pocket, he clicked on Jounouchi's number.
“This phone is currently out of use. Please try again.”
Honda swore as he clicked on Anzu's number.
“This phone is currently out of use. Please try again.”
Of course, he didn't know that both of their phones were lying broken in the hall, one in the ruins of a stage, the second in the ruins of a handbag.
Honda felt like smashing the phone, and realised that he had to try one of the numbers he was sure wouldn't be busy. The phone rang, and he had to hold in a cry of relief when the quavering voice came from the other side.
“Hello.”
“Hey there Espa.” Grinned Honda.
Honda didn't see Pegasus, stumbling over to his two team mates, and passing them a card key, whispering something into their ears as Ushebti nodded and the two of them walked over to the scientists.
“It's a damn good thing I'm rich.” Snapped Siegfried, pushing the stick forward in the cockpit of his helicopter. The large army style chopper, bought from Kaiba Corporation at a recent auction, had been used many a time to carry people like Amelda and Ryuzaki around after having their souls stolen.
There would have been a sense of déjà vu for any of the others who had been here, either unconscious or worried for the future for the earth, on their quest to find Paradise only a few years ago. Leon was sitting in the main hold, with Espa and his brothers, duelling in the confined space they did.
As Jinzo (Espa had only just managed to get a second) obliterated Red Riding Hood with a ball of black lightning, they felt the helicopter descend to the ground, landing with a thud on the grass of the woody area they were now in.
“Where did Honda say he was?” Sighed the pink haired duelist, holding a hand against his brow like a salute to shade his eyes from the non-existent sun as he tried to see where, if he was there, Honda was.
“He said he was in the NightDuel HQ.”
“IN the HQ?” Sighed Leon, glad they had landed inside the impregnable gates.
“Yep.” Grinned Espa's oldest brother, as they looked at the main door, sure it was where their friend was.
“Let's go.” Snapped one of the younger Roba boys, sliding the door open as the others followed.
Chapter 5 continued
Anzu picked up her sixth card, looking at her hand with a fierce brow.
“Seems you didn't pick the cards you needed dear peach.”
She blocked Johnny's taunts from her mind as she thought hard.
“I'll summon toon gemini elf in attack mode, and set one card, ending my turn.”
A sparkling shower of stars fell from the sky, and from them, like a pop-up picture in a book, appeared two ladies, one a redhead, one a blonde, dressed in navy blue cat suits that stopped at their collars. They were embracing each other, and with a fierce glare, they made Johnny recoil a little.
The dark duelist drew his sixth card, and smiled as he summon a monster.
“My creature of choice is beautiful head-huntress, and then I'll activate my magic card.”
A woman in a long emerald kimono, with a matching colour hair tied back with a lotus hair-band, formed from the card in a shower of pastel pink petals, pulling a long katana from a hilt on her thigh. Behind her, a glowing light raced into her hands, forming a thick broad sword to match her chosen weapon of choice.
“Thanks to my legendary sword of the bard, my beautiful head-huntress gains 500 attack, along with the ability to special summon one musical or female monster from my hand. So say hello to Sonic Maid!”
The sword let off a gentle hum, and with a flash of green winds, a lady in a frock of a similar livery, with pale skin and a diadem of black onyx, holding a scythe marked with treble clefs, appeared on the field.
“Now beautiful head-huntress, destroy her precious toon gemini!”
The first warrior ran forward, slamming a sword into the skull of the cartoon. With a comical sound effect, the monster faded away.
“Now my Sonic Maid, attack directly!”
“Not so fast! Activate twinkle mirror.”
The warrior was only a few inches from Anzu, the scythe dangling above her head, ready to hit. But it had stopped moving. Johnny looked at his monster shatter apart, and then noticed another beautiful head-huntress, also with the same equipment card, emerge to the field, along with three copies.
“My twinkle mirror can only be activated when a monster on my side of the field is destroyed before a direct attack. I can create clones of any monster on the field, one for each star of the destroyed monster, so I chose your female assassin.”
Johnny growled. He set a card and ended.
“Now I draw a card, using the effect of sword of the bard to special summon four monsters thanks to tokens not counting as my monster zones.”
Anzu picked up her deck, searching through. She picked up her four monsters of choice and placed them down. A green elf in a flowing white cassock, with flowing strawberry blonde hair, a dark elf with midnight purple hair and a black robe on and copies of these two monsters appeared on the field, the green elves in defence, the dark ones in attack.
“My dark elves have an attack of 2000, my mystical elves have a defence of 2000. And all of them shall lead to your demise Johnny, when I summon this monster.”
Anzu placed down a card, letting two tokens disappear from the field to summon a tall woman in gold plating with long flamboyant robes cloaking her scrawny form. In her hands, balls of energy blazed into action as she stared at Johnny with cold, heartless spheres for eyes.
“My Cosmo queen has an attack of 2900, almost as strong as the legendary blue eyes.” Snapped Anzu, throwing her arm out to signal her creatures to attack. The first dark elf slammed a feline claw adorned hand into the throat of the beautiful head-huntress, the second aiming for Johnny.
“Activate my face down card, charming disarm.”
As Cosmo queen and the two remaining tokens aimed at Johnny with the dark elf, their attacks dropped, leaving Johnny with 950 life points, which clocked down to 550 after the damage from head-huntress being destroyed added to it.
“My charming disarm stops all female creatures in their path with halved attacks, leaving me with a fraction of my life to keep playing with.”
“Fine then. I'll end.” Sighed Anzu, placing a card down to protect her now permanently weakened lady creatures. As she looked back at Johnny, she knew something had been drawn.
“This is it… Yeah baby…” Sighed Johnny, placing the card down. Around them from holes in the ground, the diamonds threw up into the air. Each one was marked with a different musical note, ranging from low ones to high ones, catching their essence on the chilly wind that played a deadly melody to any, like Anzu, who weren't dressed warmly.
“Victor rewards his helpers handsomely… and when I paid my life as a dancer up to join him, he gave me a card to carry on my love for music. Every turn, another of my notes will be played, and when all of them are…”
“I lose?” Groaned Anzu, looking around her and what were soon to be her deathbed if she didn't act fast.
“Indeed. You've caught on rather well for a bimbo.” Chuckled Johnny, swinging his ape-like arms to and fro as he removed some cards from his cemetery. Around them, two enormous light shows erupted, both different shades of neon green.
“My wall allowed me to remove my head huntress and sonic maid to specially bring out two more musical cards from my deck. So welcome my Sound Barrier and pop band stage.”
This certainly wasn't meant to be a greeting. The two of them watched as a fierce howl of wind built up as a shield around Johnny, making his laughter hollow, as if he were talking through a loo roll tube. Behind him, drums played, a guitar started, and before Anzu could stop it, a quartet of young women in school uniforms decorated in pastel red, blue, green and purple emerged, singing a distant song.
“What in the world…”
“Thanks to my pop band stage, I get to special summon four `bishoujo J-pop performers' in ATK mode, Performer Red, Performer Green, Performer Blue and Performer Purple.
The four of them leapt down, each one with an attack of 1600. They stood, glaring at Anzu who cowered away from them.
“Thanks to my sound barrier, any battle damage done to me doesn't happen. And not only that, my creatures gain 500 attack when inside this ring.
Anzu cursed the imprisoning circle, wanting to escape, and then noticed the four monsters pointing at her creatures.
“Now Performer Red, destroy her precious beautiful head huntress token, and the same from you, Green.”
As the other two Performers were ordered to attack Cosmo queen and one of the elves, Anzu looking at her left over 2000 life points. The four bodies were about to shatter when…
“Activate holy barrier mirror force!” Snapped Anzu, throwing the card forward to alleviate the attack. The glass shattered back in the faces of the girls, as they just fell back, not being destroyed.
“What in the…”
“Silly girl. Did you think one of Victor's cards would be so easily destroyed? Heavens no! I merely have to pay half my life points and I'm spared.”
Anzu saw four of the notes clock down out of the ten up around her.
“And due to me making four attacks, four notes are activated.”
She was shocked to see a ring of the activated notes surrounding her, a heavy wind picking up about her person.
“Just six more attacks…” Moaned Johnny, leaning against the far wall as his life points fell to 275.
“Draw.” Answered she, noticing she still had all her monsters up for use.
“I'll switch all my monsters to defence and set one monster and once other card.” Stated Anzu, placing them down.
“I draw.” Stated Johnny, pulling another card from the deck.
“I'll activate polymerisation on the lady of faith and witch of the black forest in my hand to special summon musician king in attack mode, and then I'll play water omotics.”
A naked woman holding a small jar of water over one shoulder appeared beside a man in tight leather trousers and a shrinking white shirt, with a large guitar painted black and flaming strung around his neck. A mohawk of thick blonde hair drooped over one of his eyes as he strummed a high pitched note.
“Now my red and blue performers will destroy your two elves, while the other two destroy the tokens.”
The monsters shattered as Anzu breathed a sigh of relief that her life points were safe.
“And then Musician King and Water Omotics, destroy Cosmo Queen and then water omotics will destroy a mystical elf, as thanks to the cards, they all have an attack of 3000 now.”
Anzu drew a card as his turn ended. She needed to win, to save all of them…
“I activate card of sanctity.” She declared.
“And now I summon king mokey mokey by discarding three mokey mokey in my hand and using polymerisation. Then I'll destroy it to special summon all three onto the field.”
The three rectangular angels emerged, each with neutral expressions spread across their faces.
“Now I'll summon fire princess in attack mode.”
A surge of fire burst from the ground, a gothic young lady dressed in black and blood red robes formed from the ground, holding a worn wooden staff at arms length.
“And finally, I'll activate my pot of greed, drawing another two cards.”
She saw the images of Jounouchi, Shizuka, Otogi and Yugi in her mind as she pulled the last two cards she would need from the deck.
“I'll activate mokey mokey smackdown, and because of this card, my mystik wok will be used on one of them, and the other two mokey mokeys go up to 3000 attack.”
“Is that your final pathetic move? To destroy me with those square sprites?”
“Not so fast. You've already lost.”
Johnny saw his life points were 0 and then looked at Fire Princess. He swore as the wall enclosed him, the stage breaking down, the shield deafening him. Anzu heard a sickening crack from inside the minute ring as the diamonds fell apart, and saw Johnny was now just a mangled body.
Espa had left his brothers outside to guard the main doorway and the helicopter as he, Siegfried and Leon had headed down into the main chamber. The staircase had an ominous presence about it, and with every step, more cold sweat grew on their brows, more tension built up in their minds.
The doorway was just a thick slab of rock, but it was impossible to open.
“Oh for god's sake…” Sighed Leon after the umpteenth time of trying to wrench it apart. Siegfriend and Espa were fiddling with their duel disks in the background as Leon went into a fit of anger on the entrance.
“Stand back Leon.” Snapped Siegfried as he stood up, holding his duel disk up in front of the slab. The younger sibling of the pink haired man obliged, stepping back for a minute as the prism projectors whirred into life.
“I summon Valkyrie Brunhilde!”
The earth shattered at the force of the horse emerging from the ground, the slender, blue haired woman emerging, holding her spear erect and proud. In a few seconds, she had rammed down the door in a show of sheer brutality.
“You'd expect a duelling society to need you to modify rival products to open the door.” Groaned Siegfriend, stepping through, ignoring the exasperated expressions on his comrade's faces.
Honda had never been more happy to see Siegfried in his entire life. As they stepped beside Bakura, lit in the flaming brazier's light from the doorway, the three of them looked like a true team. It was Vivian who spoke first.
“Have you come to save us?”
“We have indeed.” Smirked Leon, giving her the `v' for victory sign as a show of his friendship. She remembered him from Kaiba Grand Prix almost instantly, not least for his sudden swap in attitudes from his bookish ways at the blue eyes dome.
“So, what's the drill here?”
Siegfried stepped in front of Bakura and looked into his deep blank eyes. He wasn't moving anywhere soon.
“What's wrong with this guy?”
“It's the ring… the sennen ring…” Groaned Pegasus, stopping his constant sobbing as he stumbled over to Pierre and Ushebti. Espa gave a shrill whistle on the small pennywhistle tied around his neck, and in a few minutes, all the brothers had made their way down the staircase to meet them there.
“Take Corgi and Miss Valentine to the helicopter, and Leon, go take Horus, quickly now.”
One of the older boys and one of the middle aged ones picked up the unconcious bodies, as Leon lead the lifeless form of Mr. Fletcher through the doorway.
“Now all we have to do is escort Bakura out and we should be done…” Sighed Siegfried. Seto walked up to him, holding the hands of Ryuzaki and Mokuba, ready to lead them out.
“These two also need to be taken out quickly.”
The last two brothers lead them out up the stairwell, as Kaiba glared into the eyes of his company rival. For once, they were working as a team.
“Where in the world do you think you're going?” Roared Pegasus as he turned around with his team mates. The three of them had wicked expressions spread across their faces, and Honda realised the two of them must also be mind puppets.
“What do you mean? We're getting the hell out of here!”
“Oh no you don't.” Snapped Pierre, drawing his duel disk, as did the other two.
“What is this? Some kid of joke? We need to take all those people back to their homes idiot!” Roared Espa, being held back by Seto.
“Easy there kid.”
“Oh no, you aren't going anywhere easily. Seto, you need to stay for the rod, and what about Isis and Bakura? You aren't going to leave them here!” Moaned Pegasus, flicking back a stray lock of hair.
“Just shut the hell up you ranting loon!” Snapped Siegfried, drawing his duel disk. He'd seen enough in his short time here. Kaiba nodded, snapping his deck and disk onto his arm. Vivian followed suit, and the three of them got ready to duel.
Honda and Espa looked at each other, and without hesitation, they swept Bakura and Isis into their arms and carried them out as an iron panel closed in the broken down doorway behind them. It was then the scientists began to flee from the area, leaving everything open to be destroyed as a red light burst on around the hall, a siren beeping madly for a few seconds before being replaced by a dull female voice.
“System self destruct in twenty minutes.”
Pegasus saw a few remaining scientists carrying away the boxes, some of them carrying away the ushebti tablet, lifting up the rod carefully and throwing it back into the cast before anything could happen. The tablet was also moved out, the only thing now left in the room being the computer system and the urn.
“You'd better get duelling Kaiba Boy.”
Bakura and Isis seemed to awaken a bit as they reached fresh air, and the Egyptian lady seemed to have changed very little. Bakura however, was still silent, more pale than ever, black rings forming under his tired eyes. Honda sat next to him, holding an arm around his shoulders, trying to look like a friend when he wanted Bakura to notice it was more than that. They had never finished their talk back at their hospital, Bakura hadn't even been fully cured, when they were dragged out by a possessed Kaiba.
Espa put down the phone in the main cabin. They had to leave. Now. He could hear Mai and Corgi stirring behind him as the helicopter burst off into the night sky, floating over the river that had been the last sighting of Malik and Rishid.
Isis dabbed a tear from her eye, remembering what she had seen with the tauk in her grasp. She pondered for a second what Bakura was seeing, but stopped after he began to stare at her. Bakura wasn't seeing anything. He was at a crossroad between ecstasy Honda was holding him and anger that the ring had been in his grasp so long. But he wouldn't let it go again, oh no…
Even if Pegasus was coming for Isis, him and Yugi because of it.
Yugi had finally began to wake in the car home as Anzu took the car keys from the band caravan Otogi had been in. She had already left Shizuka and Jounouchi in the worried grasp of their mother, and Otogi and the band were now at the Domino hospital. It was her and Yugi. Alone. In a trailer. And she had to be driving…
Kame Game had come up, and she stopped the car, looking into the alley beside it, where it had all began, and become more than two boy's perversion.
Sugoroku raced out in his pyjamas and night cap, and swept Yugi into his aging arms, somehow carrying the young boy into the house. Anzu waved goodbye as he stepped out, getting ready for the short walk to her apartment a few blocks down. The night was just as cold as when Corgi had been cycling through it merely a few hours before, and Anzu spent her time looking at her deck a bit more to try and distract herself from the cold.
Her next stop before she turned to her flat would be the Domino Hospital. Maybe she could check on Otogi. She assumed that Jounouchi and Shizuka had probably been brought over as well, as she saw Ms. Katsuya's car in the outside car park. She shivered a little, feeling her hair stand on end. But it wasn't because of the cold. In fact, the grass around her on the small patches beside the road was beginning to stand erect too, albeit in a slight swirling pattern. It took her only a few seconds to look into the sky, and see the Kaiba Corporation Helicopter land down next to the Katsuya car.
Isis stumbled out of the main cargo hold, falling into the arms of Anzu, who had been waiting for them. Doctors had rushed out at the sound of the helicopter blades, and already stretchers were carrying away Mai (much to Anzu's surprise,) Corgi, Ryuzaki, Horus, Mokuba and also Bakura into the hospital. They were certainly getting a lot of casualties tonight. The five Roba brothers, Leon Von Schrieder and Honda stepped out, but no Espa. No Siegfried (shocking, letting Leon out on his own in such a rough neighbourhood. Germans…) and most shocking of all, no Kaiba. Even if it was owned by Siegfried, the helicopter still was Kaiba Corporation, and Mokuba had been there. Would Seto sense Mokuba had been in trouble? Isis had now stopped muttering into Anzu's shoulder, and was speedily recounting the whole night, with Honda aiding her in the prologue to her involvement. Anzu couldn't believe any of it. In the same night, three of her friends had been held at gunpoint by Pegasus and Victor, four more sent to hospital or home due to injuries from some strange members of NightDuel, one of the gods had appeared, the school auditorium had been destroyed, and a series of strange cards had been released. The only real consolation was, as she checked her mobile phone's internet connection, that eight teams had now gathered a full set of key cards, including her own. The teams that had got through each had their names written in large red letters.
GOLD CARD TEAMS:
Yugi
Jounouchi ---- Gets through
Anzu
Honda
Otogi ---- Gets through
Shizuka
Seto
Mokuba ---- Gets through
Rebecca
Siegfried Von Schrieder
Leon Von Schrieder
Espa Roba
Mai
Isis---- Gets through
Vivian
Varon
Amelda
Raphael
Ryuzaki Haga
GURU
Victor
Bandit Keith ---- Gets through
Mako
Malik
Rishid---- Gets through
Umbra
Lumis
Pandora
Catherine
Sugorok u
Prof. Hawkins
Mind Doll---- Gets through
Panik
Bakura---- Gets through
Bonz
She was shocked that in one day, many of the teams had gathered enough cards, especially that Panik and Bonz had won without Bakura seven times. Anzu of course, had gathered up all of the sennen cards Victor had given his cronies, handing them to Otogi and herself for spectacular wins. She may be caring, but also a winner at heart.
A message appeared on the screen.
ALL TEAMS THAT DID NOT QUALIFY WILL PLAY IN A LOSER BRACKET INSIDE THE DOMINO MALL.
At least Siegfried's team hadn't forfeited a chance for more cards for nothing…
“Kaiba Boy, did you really believe that your duel disks stand a chance against us?”
“I could ask you the same question.” He replied in an arrogant voice. Pegasus chuckled, throwing his hand out, letting a golden energy ripple across the pinstripe sleeve.
“Boy, in a Yami No Game, duel disks are a thing of the past.”
His curtain of hair flew up, the eye releasing even more energy, pulsating through his other arm. His duel disk shattered into pieces, his deck stayed firmly in place. The other five were far more shocked to see this occurrence happen to their own disks, only to see a new design take it's place. Kaiba gasped as he realised what the new stone duel disk was.
“Take a look at your precious Dia Danks, the sources of power that will make or break you, just like the games of darkness many millennia ago.” Smirked Ushebti, holding up a blue print of the disk with a deck slot modification.
“Where are the life points and the hologram projectors?”
Vivian kept feeling her new duel disk, hoping to find something made out of holo technology or LCD displays somewhere.
“In a game of Ka, you need neither. In your deck, you only have magic and traps. In your tablet selection, you have every monster in your deck. You can summon as many as you want to attack with, as there is no turn based system here. We shall each choose one monster to start with, summoning it.” Stated Pegasus, as each of them found their monsters in a separate slot, picking out one. As they placed the card into the side of the crude feather designs on the disk, the cards appeared as stone carvings on the slabs of the floor beneath them, emerging onto the field as real creatures of magic.
“My chosen monster was Mobius the Frost Monarch.” Announced Pierre, showing the grand man in periwinkle and silver armour emerge on the field, hands glowing with a frosty energy.
“My chosen monster was Relinquished.” Announced Pegasus, holding up the card and slotting it into the disk.
“Mine is my Horus lv8.”
Ushebti watched as her gigantic pewter behemoth emerged, cerulean flames licking around the artificial thighs of the beast.
“Mine is my dragon lady.” Announced Vivian, placing down the card to allow the maroon-clad lady to emerge, two glowing blades held loosely in her lax grip. Kaiba and Siegfried played their monsters at the same moment.
“Valkyrie Sovite and Blue Eyes White Dragon! Emerge now!”
The grand monsters appeared on the field, one an incredibly elegant young lady, the other a powerful tyrant with the power to kill almost anything.
“Due to my valkyrie's special ability, I can destroy one monster on the field. So I'm going to choose your precious Horus.” Announced Siegfried, his monster leaping at the dragon with a fierce gleam in her eye. The dragon leapt out the way, or more correctly flew, slamming a heavy wing against the roof as it spiralled back down for an assault against the lady on horseback. As it flew forwards, it was stopped by Blue Eyes, which slammed a thick tail against the skull of the dragoon opponent. The valkyrie raced over to relinquished, and swiftly attacked it, only to see the sword cut dragon lady to his surprise.
“My relinquished absorbed Dragon Lady, making it more powerful than you could have imagined.” Smirked Pegasus, letting his beast fire a blast of energy at the warrior. Siegfried covered his eyes as his monster was destroyed, the tablet shattering. Instead of a meagre life point drop from this far away, he felt a piece of heart ripped away as he knelt before the pressure of his opponent. Kaiba looked at Vivian, who nodded, and he lead his control of blue eyes white dragon over to relinquished, which shattered in a storm of midnight blue leathery skin. Pegasus roared as he sunk to the floor at the same height as Siegfried, and both of them clambered up to continue the assault. Pegasus was even more shocked to see, somehow, Dragon Lady had survived.
“My giant trunade allowed me to return dragon lady to my field Pegasus, you should know that.” Grinned Vivian, showing the tablet ceasing the windstorm it had released.
“My next Ka is Thousand Eyes Restrict.” Snapped Pegasus, placing down his next ka, looking at the five cards he had in hand.
“And then I'll activate my toon mask, taking a clone of blue eyes and making it a cartoon beast.”
A small Frankenstein face clasped onto the dragon, and with a zap of lightning a smaller form of the behemoth had emerged beside Pegasus.
“Now my toon dragon will attack you Kaiba Boy.”
Pegasus clenched his heart as the dragon pounded against his owner's chest to launch the attack, firing against Seto, who roared in immense pain.
“I'll activate my sword of dragon soul, giving my dragon lady a power up for every dragon on the field.”
Vivian commanded her warrior to destroy blue eyes toon as the real blue eyes raced against Horus, firing blasts of blue and red energy that shook the walls and broke the stones away, falling into the giant urn that hissed away menacingly.
“Now I'll summon my ultimate dragon ka, and with a power higher than Horus, it can easily defeat your puny armoured lizard.” Announced Kaiba as Ushebti gasped as her ka exploded in a shower of mana, leaving her defenceless for a second as she got another ka out.
“Now my Valkyrie Brunhilde, attack her directly!” Announced Siegfried as he placed down his second ka. Ushebti was thrown back by the blast of the spear, as she slammed the next card into the slot, which emerged in a shower of golden skulls.
“My spirit of the pharaoh will destroy your pathetic dragon lady!”
The grand warrior, dressed in gold armour with wild flowing brown hair escaping from the mask that covered his face, attacked the female paladin with a sickening crunch. The sword clasped against the golden skull shield, and then…
“My beasts of the underworld, destroy her sword!”
As Vivian saw Ushebti mutter her command, she also noticed three or four small skeleton priests crawl from the earth below her, dragging the sword back down with them. Vivian's face was in a state of horror.
The dead… they didn't help me…
Dragon Lady was destroyed with a menacing crack of bones, and Vivian had to clasp her chest, as well as her burning eyes, now streaming with tears. She pulled a second monster out and played it, and all that appeared was a master kyonshee.
“What do you think you're doing Viv?” Roared Siegfried, knowing she could play better than this. What had that beast done to her? Did she have some problem with dead bodies? Whatever it was, it had phased her.
“Vivian… I'm sure your parent's bodies shall help you even in the afterlife…”
The young Chinese duelist heard the village Witch's words played over and over in her mind. The one chance she had of them helping, they hadn't. She didn't care that reaper on the nightmare, Blue Eyes Toon Dragon and Mobius had just been destroyed in a single blast of Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. She didn't care that Kaiba had let his dragon be a target of Thousand Eyes so that he could use his switch card to swap it with Vorse Raider to defeat Pegasus's ka. All she could see were the hollow eyes of her mother and father, their brittle limbs and sunken faces moaning for help as she was sat out on the dusty veranda, pinned down by Dr. Gracious…
The alarm had now penetrated the sphere of black light that surrounded them, stating it had one minute left to go. Pegasus, Pierre and Ushebti were all collapsed on the floor; Vivian was in a similar state, sobbing her eyes out as Blue Eyes Ultimate reared up for a final assault. As the blasts grew in the titan's maw, the black wall cut out. The darkness roared into a tornado beside them, and from it emerged Victor with a stern look on his face. His purple suit was ruffled, his shirt stained with sweat. His tie was undone, hung limp around his neck to make some sort of attempt at a decent appearance.
“You have served your purposes children.” Snapped Victor, holding his arms out. Kaiba felt a warm tug at his navel, like Corgi had felt earlier, and saw he, Siegfried, Vivian, Ushebti and Pierre were now elevated in the air from azure columns of light erupting from the earth. With a sudden flash, the five of them were in the lobby of Domino General Hospital.
Pegasus's eyes had grown shallow. He had lost to Kaiba again. His three ka lay limp on the ground, Manga Ryu Ran and Toon Summoned Skull falling out of the left over slot, along with his deck. His face was more pale than usual, his hair thrown back beside his shoulders.
“Why did you stop me…” Sighed Pegasus, looking at the hammer shot in his hand.
“You've served your purpose well, fulfilling the ka level of the sennen eye, kidnapping the children until they had given their ka energy levels to the items… I needed you only to do one final task. To forget of your son and kill Seto. After all, I tried to plant those thoughts of Seto attacking him into your brain, didn't I?”
Pegasus didn't know what he was on about. Seto was there, with Horus, but was it the same reason? Maybe Victor had destroyed his mind when he tried to tamper with it.
“Mr. Crawford, I have known you for… what is it? Five years now? Remember the prophecy? The deaths? The pain you felt? It was all me.”
Pegasus wasn't moving. He was praying on the ground as the count fell to 30 seconds.
“Even Cecilia, Pegasus Joseph Crawford. I even killed Cecilia.”
Pegasus had now looked up at Victor, who's face was calm and slightly pale, as if, for once, he felt some guilt.
“You…” Moaned Pegasus, the tears now streaking down his cheeks faster than ever. Coming from the sennen eye, they had a faint hue of gold.
“Yes Pegasus. Due to your carelessness and of my short knowledge of the keepers of the items, I thought the only way to finally get the ka I needed for the eye was through killing Cecilia.”
“Yes you wanted to bring her back if I joined?”
“I would never have been able to do such a thing you child. Cecilia is gone for eternity, sealed in the realms we dream to know about. Your son doesn't know you are alive, and he never will. For this shall be your grave.”
The hall was silent except for the blurting alarm.
“10 seconds.”
“YOU SON OF A…”
Pegasus leapt up, biting Victor's arm as he threw the other one around the man's neck, crushing it slowly in his quavering, yet strong, grip. In a matter of seconds, Victor had twisted Pegasus to the floor, plucked the eye from his bloody face, kicked him in the groin and thrown in the item into the urn.
“Self destruct imminent.”
“Goodbye Mr. Crawford.” Chuckled Victor, as he watched the hall blow up in a spectacular fashion. The urn disappeared in a similar blast of blue light to their other base, Pegasus wailed one final cry of angst, and Victor was lost into the plumes of smoke and fire that erupted around the once magnificent hall.
The news helicopter that flew over the remains of NightDuel's Japanese base was shocked at the simplicity of the destruction. The pilot was also shocked by the report that Pegasus had died in the explosion. He was shocked to learn that Horus Fletcher, a young silver card holder in the tournament, was now the ruler of Industrial Illusions. The one thing that would have shocked him most though, if he had come half an hour earlier, was the form of Victor, not at all harmed, wondering into the darkness of the night.
Anzu picked up her sixth card, looking at her hand with a fierce brow.
“Seems you didn't pick the cards you needed dear peach.”
She blocked Johnny's taunts from her mind as she thought hard.
“I'll summon toon gemini elf in attack mode, and set one card, ending my turn.”
A sparkling shower of stars fell from the sky, and from them, like a pop-up picture in a book, appeared two ladies, one a redhead, one a blonde, dressed in navy blue cat suits that stopped at their collars. They were embracing each other, and with a fierce glare, they made Johnny recoil a little.
The dark duelist drew his sixth card, and smiled as he summon a monster.
“My creature of choice is beautiful head-huntress, and then I'll activate my magic card.”
A woman in a long emerald kimono, with a matching colour hair tied back with a lotus hair-band, formed from the card in a shower of pastel pink petals, pulling a long katana from a hilt on her thigh. Behind her, a glowing light raced into her hands, forming a thick broad sword to match her chosen weapon of choice.
“Thanks to my legendary sword of the bard, my beautiful head-huntress gains 500 attack, along with the ability to special summon one musical or female monster from my hand. So say hello to Sonic Maid!”
The sword let off a gentle hum, and with a flash of green winds, a lady in a frock of a similar livery, with pale skin and a diadem of black onyx, holding a scythe marked with treble clefs, appeared on the field.
“Now beautiful head-huntress, destroy her precious toon gemini!”
The first warrior ran forward, slamming a sword into the skull of the cartoon. With a comical sound effect, the monster faded away.
“Now my Sonic Maid, attack directly!”
“Not so fast! Activate twinkle mirror.”
The warrior was only a few inches from Anzu, the scythe dangling above her head, ready to hit. But it had stopped moving. Johnny looked at his monster shatter apart, and then noticed another beautiful head-huntress, also with the same equipment card, emerge to the field, along with three copies.
“My twinkle mirror can only be activated when a monster on my side of the field is destroyed before a direct attack. I can create clones of any monster on the field, one for each star of the destroyed monster, so I chose your female assassin.”
Johnny growled. He set a card and ended.
“Now I draw a card, using the effect of sword of the bard to special summon four monsters thanks to tokens not counting as my monster zones.”
Anzu picked up her deck, searching through. She picked up her four monsters of choice and placed them down. A green elf in a flowing white cassock, with flowing strawberry blonde hair, a dark elf with midnight purple hair and a black robe on and copies of these two monsters appeared on the field, the green elves in defence, the dark ones in attack.
“My dark elves have an attack of 2000, my mystical elves have a defence of 2000. And all of them shall lead to your demise Johnny, when I summon this monster.”
Anzu placed down a card, letting two tokens disappear from the field to summon a tall woman in gold plating with long flamboyant robes cloaking her scrawny form. In her hands, balls of energy blazed into action as she stared at Johnny with cold, heartless spheres for eyes.
“My Cosmo queen has an attack of 2900, almost as strong as the legendary blue eyes.” Snapped Anzu, throwing her arm out to signal her creatures to attack. The first dark elf slammed a feline claw adorned hand into the throat of the beautiful head-huntress, the second aiming for Johnny.
“Activate my face down card, charming disarm.”
As Cosmo queen and the two remaining tokens aimed at Johnny with the dark elf, their attacks dropped, leaving Johnny with 950 life points, which clocked down to 550 after the damage from head-huntress being destroyed added to it.
“My charming disarm stops all female creatures in their path with halved attacks, leaving me with a fraction of my life to keep playing with.”
“Fine then. I'll end.” Sighed Anzu, placing a card down to protect her now permanently weakened lady creatures. As she looked back at Johnny, she knew something had been drawn.
“This is it… Yeah baby…” Sighed Johnny, placing the card down. Around them from holes in the ground, the diamonds threw up into the air. Each one was marked with a different musical note, ranging from low ones to high ones, catching their essence on the chilly wind that played a deadly melody to any, like Anzu, who weren't dressed warmly.
“Victor rewards his helpers handsomely… and when I paid my life as a dancer up to join him, he gave me a card to carry on my love for music. Every turn, another of my notes will be played, and when all of them are…”
“I lose?” Groaned Anzu, looking around her and what were soon to be her deathbed if she didn't act fast.
“Indeed. You've caught on rather well for a bimbo.” Chuckled Johnny, swinging his ape-like arms to and fro as he removed some cards from his cemetery. Around them, two enormous light shows erupted, both different shades of neon green.
“My wall allowed me to remove my head huntress and sonic maid to specially bring out two more musical cards from my deck. So welcome my Sound Barrier and pop band stage.”
This certainly wasn't meant to be a greeting. The two of them watched as a fierce howl of wind built up as a shield around Johnny, making his laughter hollow, as if he were talking through a loo roll tube. Behind him, drums played, a guitar started, and before Anzu could stop it, a quartet of young women in school uniforms decorated in pastel red, blue, green and purple emerged, singing a distant song.
“What in the world…”
“Thanks to my pop band stage, I get to special summon four `bishoujo J-pop performers' in ATK mode, Performer Red, Performer Green, Performer Blue and Performer Purple.
The four of them leapt down, each one with an attack of 1600. They stood, glaring at Anzu who cowered away from them.
“Thanks to my sound barrier, any battle damage done to me doesn't happen. And not only that, my creatures gain 500 attack when inside this ring.
Anzu cursed the imprisoning circle, wanting to escape, and then noticed the four monsters pointing at her creatures.
“Now Performer Red, destroy her precious beautiful head huntress token, and the same from you, Green.”
As the other two Performers were ordered to attack Cosmo queen and one of the elves, Anzu looking at her left over 2000 life points. The four bodies were about to shatter when…
“Activate holy barrier mirror force!” Snapped Anzu, throwing the card forward to alleviate the attack. The glass shattered back in the faces of the girls, as they just fell back, not being destroyed.
“What in the…”
“Silly girl. Did you think one of Victor's cards would be so easily destroyed? Heavens no! I merely have to pay half my life points and I'm spared.”
Anzu saw four of the notes clock down out of the ten up around her.
“And due to me making four attacks, four notes are activated.”
She was shocked to see a ring of the activated notes surrounding her, a heavy wind picking up about her person.
“Just six more attacks…” Moaned Johnny, leaning against the far wall as his life points fell to 275.
“Draw.” Answered she, noticing she still had all her monsters up for use.
“I'll switch all my monsters to defence and set one monster and once other card.” Stated Anzu, placing them down.
“I draw.” Stated Johnny, pulling another card from the deck.
“I'll activate polymerisation on the lady of faith and witch of the black forest in my hand to special summon musician king in attack mode, and then I'll play water omotics.”
A naked woman holding a small jar of water over one shoulder appeared beside a man in tight leather trousers and a shrinking white shirt, with a large guitar painted black and flaming strung around his neck. A mohawk of thick blonde hair drooped over one of his eyes as he strummed a high pitched note.
“Now my red and blue performers will destroy your two elves, while the other two destroy the tokens.”
The monsters shattered as Anzu breathed a sigh of relief that her life points were safe.
“And then Musician King and Water Omotics, destroy Cosmo Queen and then water omotics will destroy a mystical elf, as thanks to the cards, they all have an attack of 3000 now.”
Anzu drew a card as his turn ended. She needed to win, to save all of them…
“I activate card of sanctity.” She declared.
“And now I summon king mokey mokey by discarding three mokey mokey in my hand and using polymerisation. Then I'll destroy it to special summon all three onto the field.”
The three rectangular angels emerged, each with neutral expressions spread across their faces.
“Now I'll summon fire princess in attack mode.”
A surge of fire burst from the ground, a gothic young lady dressed in black and blood red robes formed from the ground, holding a worn wooden staff at arms length.
“And finally, I'll activate my pot of greed, drawing another two cards.”
She saw the images of Jounouchi, Shizuka, Otogi and Yugi in her mind as she pulled the last two cards she would need from the deck.
“I'll activate mokey mokey smackdown, and because of this card, my mystik wok will be used on one of them, and the other two mokey mokeys go up to 3000 attack.”
“Is that your final pathetic move? To destroy me with those square sprites?”
“Not so fast. You've already lost.”
Johnny saw his life points were 0 and then looked at Fire Princess. He swore as the wall enclosed him, the stage breaking down, the shield deafening him. Anzu heard a sickening crack from inside the minute ring as the diamonds fell apart, and saw Johnny was now just a mangled body.
Espa had left his brothers outside to guard the main doorway and the helicopter as he, Siegfried and Leon had headed down into the main chamber. The staircase had an ominous presence about it, and with every step, more cold sweat grew on their brows, more tension built up in their minds.
The doorway was just a thick slab of rock, but it was impossible to open.
“Oh for god's sake…” Sighed Leon after the umpteenth time of trying to wrench it apart. Siegfriend and Espa were fiddling with their duel disks in the background as Leon went into a fit of anger on the entrance.
“Stand back Leon.” Snapped Siegfried as he stood up, holding his duel disk up in front of the slab. The younger sibling of the pink haired man obliged, stepping back for a minute as the prism projectors whirred into life.
“I summon Valkyrie Brunhilde!”
The earth shattered at the force of the horse emerging from the ground, the slender, blue haired woman emerging, holding her spear erect and proud. In a few seconds, she had rammed down the door in a show of sheer brutality.
“You'd expect a duelling society to need you to modify rival products to open the door.” Groaned Siegfriend, stepping through, ignoring the exasperated expressions on his comrade's faces.
Honda had never been more happy to see Siegfried in his entire life. As they stepped beside Bakura, lit in the flaming brazier's light from the doorway, the three of them looked like a true team. It was Vivian who spoke first.
“Have you come to save us?”
“We have indeed.” Smirked Leon, giving her the `v' for victory sign as a show of his friendship. She remembered him from Kaiba Grand Prix almost instantly, not least for his sudden swap in attitudes from his bookish ways at the blue eyes dome.
“So, what's the drill here?”
Siegfried stepped in front of Bakura and looked into his deep blank eyes. He wasn't moving anywhere soon.
“What's wrong with this guy?”
“It's the ring… the sennen ring…” Groaned Pegasus, stopping his constant sobbing as he stumbled over to Pierre and Ushebti. Espa gave a shrill whistle on the small pennywhistle tied around his neck, and in a few minutes, all the brothers had made their way down the staircase to meet them there.
“Take Corgi and Miss Valentine to the helicopter, and Leon, go take Horus, quickly now.”
One of the older boys and one of the middle aged ones picked up the unconcious bodies, as Leon lead the lifeless form of Mr. Fletcher through the doorway.
“Now all we have to do is escort Bakura out and we should be done…” Sighed Siegfried. Seto walked up to him, holding the hands of Ryuzaki and Mokuba, ready to lead them out.
“These two also need to be taken out quickly.”
The last two brothers lead them out up the stairwell, as Kaiba glared into the eyes of his company rival. For once, they were working as a team.
“Where in the world do you think you're going?” Roared Pegasus as he turned around with his team mates. The three of them had wicked expressions spread across their faces, and Honda realised the two of them must also be mind puppets.
“What do you mean? We're getting the hell out of here!”
“Oh no you don't.” Snapped Pierre, drawing his duel disk, as did the other two.
“What is this? Some kid of joke? We need to take all those people back to their homes idiot!” Roared Espa, being held back by Seto.
“Easy there kid.”
“Oh no, you aren't going anywhere easily. Seto, you need to stay for the rod, and what about Isis and Bakura? You aren't going to leave them here!” Moaned Pegasus, flicking back a stray lock of hair.
“Just shut the hell up you ranting loon!” Snapped Siegfried, drawing his duel disk. He'd seen enough in his short time here. Kaiba nodded, snapping his deck and disk onto his arm. Vivian followed suit, and the three of them got ready to duel.
Honda and Espa looked at each other, and without hesitation, they swept Bakura and Isis into their arms and carried them out as an iron panel closed in the broken down doorway behind them. It was then the scientists began to flee from the area, leaving everything open to be destroyed as a red light burst on around the hall, a siren beeping madly for a few seconds before being replaced by a dull female voice.
“System self destruct in twenty minutes.”
Pegasus saw a few remaining scientists carrying away the boxes, some of them carrying away the ushebti tablet, lifting up the rod carefully and throwing it back into the cast before anything could happen. The tablet was also moved out, the only thing now left in the room being the computer system and the urn.
“You'd better get duelling Kaiba Boy.”
Bakura and Isis seemed to awaken a bit as they reached fresh air, and the Egyptian lady seemed to have changed very little. Bakura however, was still silent, more pale than ever, black rings forming under his tired eyes. Honda sat next to him, holding an arm around his shoulders, trying to look like a friend when he wanted Bakura to notice it was more than that. They had never finished their talk back at their hospital, Bakura hadn't even been fully cured, when they were dragged out by a possessed Kaiba.
Espa put down the phone in the main cabin. They had to leave. Now. He could hear Mai and Corgi stirring behind him as the helicopter burst off into the night sky, floating over the river that had been the last sighting of Malik and Rishid.
Isis dabbed a tear from her eye, remembering what she had seen with the tauk in her grasp. She pondered for a second what Bakura was seeing, but stopped after he began to stare at her. Bakura wasn't seeing anything. He was at a crossroad between ecstasy Honda was holding him and anger that the ring had been in his grasp so long. But he wouldn't let it go again, oh no…
Even if Pegasus was coming for Isis, him and Yugi because of it.
Yugi had finally began to wake in the car home as Anzu took the car keys from the band caravan Otogi had been in. She had already left Shizuka and Jounouchi in the worried grasp of their mother, and Otogi and the band were now at the Domino hospital. It was her and Yugi. Alone. In a trailer. And she had to be driving…
Kame Game had come up, and she stopped the car, looking into the alley beside it, where it had all began, and become more than two boy's perversion.
Sugoroku raced out in his pyjamas and night cap, and swept Yugi into his aging arms, somehow carrying the young boy into the house. Anzu waved goodbye as he stepped out, getting ready for the short walk to her apartment a few blocks down. The night was just as cold as when Corgi had been cycling through it merely a few hours before, and Anzu spent her time looking at her deck a bit more to try and distract herself from the cold.
Her next stop before she turned to her flat would be the Domino Hospital. Maybe she could check on Otogi. She assumed that Jounouchi and Shizuka had probably been brought over as well, as she saw Ms. Katsuya's car in the outside car park. She shivered a little, feeling her hair stand on end. But it wasn't because of the cold. In fact, the grass around her on the small patches beside the road was beginning to stand erect too, albeit in a slight swirling pattern. It took her only a few seconds to look into the sky, and see the Kaiba Corporation Helicopter land down next to the Katsuya car.
Isis stumbled out of the main cargo hold, falling into the arms of Anzu, who had been waiting for them. Doctors had rushed out at the sound of the helicopter blades, and already stretchers were carrying away Mai (much to Anzu's surprise,) Corgi, Ryuzaki, Horus, Mokuba and also Bakura into the hospital. They were certainly getting a lot of casualties tonight. The five Roba brothers, Leon Von Schrieder and Honda stepped out, but no Espa. No Siegfried (shocking, letting Leon out on his own in such a rough neighbourhood. Germans…) and most shocking of all, no Kaiba. Even if it was owned by Siegfried, the helicopter still was Kaiba Corporation, and Mokuba had been there. Would Seto sense Mokuba had been in trouble? Isis had now stopped muttering into Anzu's shoulder, and was speedily recounting the whole night, with Honda aiding her in the prologue to her involvement. Anzu couldn't believe any of it. In the same night, three of her friends had been held at gunpoint by Pegasus and Victor, four more sent to hospital or home due to injuries from some strange members of NightDuel, one of the gods had appeared, the school auditorium had been destroyed, and a series of strange cards had been released. The only real consolation was, as she checked her mobile phone's internet connection, that eight teams had now gathered a full set of key cards, including her own. The teams that had got through each had their names written in large red letters.
GOLD CARD TEAMS:
Yugi
Jounouchi ---- Gets through
Anzu
Honda
Otogi ---- Gets through
Shizuka
Seto
Mokuba ---- Gets through
Rebecca
Siegfried Von Schrieder
Leon Von Schrieder
Espa Roba
Mai
Isis---- Gets through
Vivian
Varon
Amelda
Raphael
Ryuzaki Haga
GURU
Victor
Bandit Keith ---- Gets through
Mako
Malik
Rishid---- Gets through
Umbra
Lumis
Pandora
Catherine
Sugorok u
Prof. Hawkins
Mind Doll---- Gets through
Panik
Bakura---- Gets through
Bonz
She was shocked that in one day, many of the teams had gathered enough cards, especially that Panik and Bonz had won without Bakura seven times. Anzu of course, had gathered up all of the sennen cards Victor had given his cronies, handing them to Otogi and herself for spectacular wins. She may be caring, but also a winner at heart.
A message appeared on the screen.
ALL TEAMS THAT DID NOT QUALIFY WILL PLAY IN A LOSER BRACKET INSIDE THE DOMINO MALL.
At least Siegfried's team hadn't forfeited a chance for more cards for nothing…
“Kaiba Boy, did you really believe that your duel disks stand a chance against us?”
“I could ask you the same question.” He replied in an arrogant voice. Pegasus chuckled, throwing his hand out, letting a golden energy ripple across the pinstripe sleeve.
“Boy, in a Yami No Game, duel disks are a thing of the past.”
His curtain of hair flew up, the eye releasing even more energy, pulsating through his other arm. His duel disk shattered into pieces, his deck stayed firmly in place. The other five were far more shocked to see this occurrence happen to their own disks, only to see a new design take it's place. Kaiba gasped as he realised what the new stone duel disk was.
“Take a look at your precious Dia Danks, the sources of power that will make or break you, just like the games of darkness many millennia ago.” Smirked Ushebti, holding up a blue print of the disk with a deck slot modification.
“Where are the life points and the hologram projectors?”
Vivian kept feeling her new duel disk, hoping to find something made out of holo technology or LCD displays somewhere.
“In a game of Ka, you need neither. In your deck, you only have magic and traps. In your tablet selection, you have every monster in your deck. You can summon as many as you want to attack with, as there is no turn based system here. We shall each choose one monster to start with, summoning it.” Stated Pegasus, as each of them found their monsters in a separate slot, picking out one. As they placed the card into the side of the crude feather designs on the disk, the cards appeared as stone carvings on the slabs of the floor beneath them, emerging onto the field as real creatures of magic.
“My chosen monster was Mobius the Frost Monarch.” Announced Pierre, showing the grand man in periwinkle and silver armour emerge on the field, hands glowing with a frosty energy.
“My chosen monster was Relinquished.” Announced Pegasus, holding up the card and slotting it into the disk.
“Mine is my Horus lv8.”
Ushebti watched as her gigantic pewter behemoth emerged, cerulean flames licking around the artificial thighs of the beast.
“Mine is my dragon lady.” Announced Vivian, placing down the card to allow the maroon-clad lady to emerge, two glowing blades held loosely in her lax grip. Kaiba and Siegfried played their monsters at the same moment.
“Valkyrie Sovite and Blue Eyes White Dragon! Emerge now!”
The grand monsters appeared on the field, one an incredibly elegant young lady, the other a powerful tyrant with the power to kill almost anything.
“Due to my valkyrie's special ability, I can destroy one monster on the field. So I'm going to choose your precious Horus.” Announced Siegfried, his monster leaping at the dragon with a fierce gleam in her eye. The dragon leapt out the way, or more correctly flew, slamming a heavy wing against the roof as it spiralled back down for an assault against the lady on horseback. As it flew forwards, it was stopped by Blue Eyes, which slammed a thick tail against the skull of the dragoon opponent. The valkyrie raced over to relinquished, and swiftly attacked it, only to see the sword cut dragon lady to his surprise.
“My relinquished absorbed Dragon Lady, making it more powerful than you could have imagined.” Smirked Pegasus, letting his beast fire a blast of energy at the warrior. Siegfried covered his eyes as his monster was destroyed, the tablet shattering. Instead of a meagre life point drop from this far away, he felt a piece of heart ripped away as he knelt before the pressure of his opponent. Kaiba looked at Vivian, who nodded, and he lead his control of blue eyes white dragon over to relinquished, which shattered in a storm of midnight blue leathery skin. Pegasus roared as he sunk to the floor at the same height as Siegfried, and both of them clambered up to continue the assault. Pegasus was even more shocked to see, somehow, Dragon Lady had survived.
“My giant trunade allowed me to return dragon lady to my field Pegasus, you should know that.” Grinned Vivian, showing the tablet ceasing the windstorm it had released.
“My next Ka is Thousand Eyes Restrict.” Snapped Pegasus, placing down his next ka, looking at the five cards he had in hand.
“And then I'll activate my toon mask, taking a clone of blue eyes and making it a cartoon beast.”
A small Frankenstein face clasped onto the dragon, and with a zap of lightning a smaller form of the behemoth had emerged beside Pegasus.
“Now my toon dragon will attack you Kaiba Boy.”
Pegasus clenched his heart as the dragon pounded against his owner's chest to launch the attack, firing against Seto, who roared in immense pain.
“I'll activate my sword of dragon soul, giving my dragon lady a power up for every dragon on the field.”
Vivian commanded her warrior to destroy blue eyes toon as the real blue eyes raced against Horus, firing blasts of blue and red energy that shook the walls and broke the stones away, falling into the giant urn that hissed away menacingly.
“Now I'll summon my ultimate dragon ka, and with a power higher than Horus, it can easily defeat your puny armoured lizard.” Announced Kaiba as Ushebti gasped as her ka exploded in a shower of mana, leaving her defenceless for a second as she got another ka out.
“Now my Valkyrie Brunhilde, attack her directly!” Announced Siegfried as he placed down his second ka. Ushebti was thrown back by the blast of the spear, as she slammed the next card into the slot, which emerged in a shower of golden skulls.
“My spirit of the pharaoh will destroy your pathetic dragon lady!”
The grand warrior, dressed in gold armour with wild flowing brown hair escaping from the mask that covered his face, attacked the female paladin with a sickening crunch. The sword clasped against the golden skull shield, and then…
“My beasts of the underworld, destroy her sword!”
As Vivian saw Ushebti mutter her command, she also noticed three or four small skeleton priests crawl from the earth below her, dragging the sword back down with them. Vivian's face was in a state of horror.
The dead… they didn't help me…
Dragon Lady was destroyed with a menacing crack of bones, and Vivian had to clasp her chest, as well as her burning eyes, now streaming with tears. She pulled a second monster out and played it, and all that appeared was a master kyonshee.
“What do you think you're doing Viv?” Roared Siegfried, knowing she could play better than this. What had that beast done to her? Did she have some problem with dead bodies? Whatever it was, it had phased her.
“Vivian… I'm sure your parent's bodies shall help you even in the afterlife…”
The young Chinese duelist heard the village Witch's words played over and over in her mind. The one chance she had of them helping, they hadn't. She didn't care that reaper on the nightmare, Blue Eyes Toon Dragon and Mobius had just been destroyed in a single blast of Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon. She didn't care that Kaiba had let his dragon be a target of Thousand Eyes so that he could use his switch card to swap it with Vorse Raider to defeat Pegasus's ka. All she could see were the hollow eyes of her mother and father, their brittle limbs and sunken faces moaning for help as she was sat out on the dusty veranda, pinned down by Dr. Gracious…
The alarm had now penetrated the sphere of black light that surrounded them, stating it had one minute left to go. Pegasus, Pierre and Ushebti were all collapsed on the floor; Vivian was in a similar state, sobbing her eyes out as Blue Eyes Ultimate reared up for a final assault. As the blasts grew in the titan's maw, the black wall cut out. The darkness roared into a tornado beside them, and from it emerged Victor with a stern look on his face. His purple suit was ruffled, his shirt stained with sweat. His tie was undone, hung limp around his neck to make some sort of attempt at a decent appearance.
“You have served your purposes children.” Snapped Victor, holding his arms out. Kaiba felt a warm tug at his navel, like Corgi had felt earlier, and saw he, Siegfried, Vivian, Ushebti and Pierre were now elevated in the air from azure columns of light erupting from the earth. With a sudden flash, the five of them were in the lobby of Domino General Hospital.
Pegasus's eyes had grown shallow. He had lost to Kaiba again. His three ka lay limp on the ground, Manga Ryu Ran and Toon Summoned Skull falling out of the left over slot, along with his deck. His face was more pale than usual, his hair thrown back beside his shoulders.
“Why did you stop me…” Sighed Pegasus, looking at the hammer shot in his hand.
“You've served your purpose well, fulfilling the ka level of the sennen eye, kidnapping the children until they had given their ka energy levels to the items… I needed you only to do one final task. To forget of your son and kill Seto. After all, I tried to plant those thoughts of Seto attacking him into your brain, didn't I?”
Pegasus didn't know what he was on about. Seto was there, with Horus, but was it the same reason? Maybe Victor had destroyed his mind when he tried to tamper with it.
“Mr. Crawford, I have known you for… what is it? Five years now? Remember the prophecy? The deaths? The pain you felt? It was all me.”
Pegasus wasn't moving. He was praying on the ground as the count fell to 30 seconds.
“Even Cecilia, Pegasus Joseph Crawford. I even killed Cecilia.”
Pegasus had now looked up at Victor, who's face was calm and slightly pale, as if, for once, he felt some guilt.
“You…” Moaned Pegasus, the tears now streaking down his cheeks faster than ever. Coming from the sennen eye, they had a faint hue of gold.
“Yes Pegasus. Due to your carelessness and of my short knowledge of the keepers of the items, I thought the only way to finally get the ka I needed for the eye was through killing Cecilia.”
“Yes you wanted to bring her back if I joined?”
“I would never have been able to do such a thing you child. Cecilia is gone for eternity, sealed in the realms we dream to know about. Your son doesn't know you are alive, and he never will. For this shall be your grave.”
The hall was silent except for the blurting alarm.
“10 seconds.”
“YOU SON OF A…”
Pegasus leapt up, biting Victor's arm as he threw the other one around the man's neck, crushing it slowly in his quavering, yet strong, grip. In a matter of seconds, Victor had twisted Pegasus to the floor, plucked the eye from his bloody face, kicked him in the groin and thrown in the item into the urn.
“Self destruct imminent.”
“Goodbye Mr. Crawford.” Chuckled Victor, as he watched the hall blow up in a spectacular fashion. The urn disappeared in a similar blast of blue light to their other base, Pegasus wailed one final cry of angst, and Victor was lost into the plumes of smoke and fire that erupted around the once magnificent hall.
The news helicopter that flew over the remains of NightDuel's Japanese base was shocked at the simplicity of the destruction. The pilot was also shocked by the report that Pegasus had died in the explosion. He was shocked to learn that Horus Fletcher, a young silver card holder in the tournament, was now the ruler of Industrial Illusions. The one thing that would have shocked him most though, if he had come half an hour earlier, was the form of Victor, not at all harmed, wondering into the darkness of the night.