Chapter 16: - Escape
With twelve thousand life points to get rid of this was going to be no easy game and they all knew it.
Of course the Big Five were confident; they were the ones with the ridiculous life point total, and they believed that their five Deck Masters would give them an advantage over Yugi, Joey and Jamie's three.
"I'll start." Whoever was controlling Tristan now was using Deepsea Warrior as his deck master.
"Gansley." Yami growled, "Be careful. When he has two monsters on the field, his deck master allows him to bounce back the attack directly to us." He looked down the row to find Joey nodded and Jamie thinking.
"I play A Legendary Ocean." Gansley sounded far too happy about that.
A tidal wave appeared from nowhere.
"Get to higher ground!" Duke yelped, pushing Tea and Serenity away from the battle, towards the nearby rock outcrops.
The water crashed down in the middle of the field, rushing over the competitor's heads.
For thirty seconds or so the Duellists felt like they were drowning but their feet were leaden, leaving them unable to swim for the surface... then the water level dropped, falling to around knee height.
While Yugi and the others coughed up water, Gansley summoned Legendary Fisherman, in attack mode.
"Hey!" Joey protested, "You can't summon him without a sacrifice! He's a level five monster!"
"Actually..." Yami growled, "He can. Legendary Ocean reduces the level of all water monsters by one and increased their attack and defence by 200."
"All water monsters?" Jamie smirked, sensing Bakura's amusement at her elation.
"On both sides of the field." Yami nodded, guessing that she'd come up with a plan.
Jamie considered her hand and nodded her understanding as Gansley played one card face down.
"Your move," Gansley indicated Joey, who nodded, looking particularly amused by something, "Huh, guess what?" Joey chuckled, "Guess you're not the only one who can pull that trick." He summoned something, only for it to vanish under the waves without even showing its face properly. "Now I have a hidden monster too." He played one card face down to go with it, "Your move, Yuge."
Yugi had no big play, not that Joey or Jamie expected one of him this early into the match. Instead he just played two cards face down and nodded to Jamie.
She had a plan already, and set one monster in face down defence mode, which was pretty standard for her low level foxes, all of whom had special effects, and set two cards face down. "And then it's back to you, Gansley." She chuckled, completely unconcerned.
Gansley wasn't bothered either, and proceeded to summon his Rainbow Snake by tributing his Legendary Fisherman and went to attack Yami.
"I activate Spellbinding Circle." Yami countered, not only trapping the snake above the water, but decreasing its attack power by 700.
"Nice one, Yuge" Joey grinned.
Yami grinned back.
"Fine, I activate Alter of Mist." Gansley snapped. "In three more turns, I'll be able to use any Ritual card in my deck!" Gansley scowled. "It's your move, Wheeler."
"Let me show you what a real Legendary Fisherman can do." Joey crowed, "Legendary Fisherman, spear that over sized snake!"
The Big Five lost five hundred and fifty life points, which barely made a dent in their huge total, but it was something.
"And now it's Yuge's turn. Show him what you got, pal!"
Yami nodded, "I summon Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts, in attack mode!" The huge furry creature appeared on the field, roaring its defiance. "Attack him directly!"
The Big Five lost another fifteen hundred, pushing them below the ten thousand mark.
"That end's my turn." Yami looked pleased.
"And starts mine." Jamie smirked, "And thanks to your Legendary Ocean, it's going to be a good one. I flip my Blazetail Fox, using its effect to burn away 500 points!" The Beast/Effect monster appeared on the field and shot fireballs at Gansley, who flinched away from the heat as his points dropped. "And not only that, I sacrifice my Blazetail Fox for my Frostbite Fox!"
Joey cheered, remembering the icy fox that was Jamie's trump card when she couldn't get her Seven Tail Fox out, was a water monster, so not only did it rise to 2600, but she could get it out with only one tribute.
"Now Frostbite, attack him directly!"
"I activate Changing Destiny!" Gansley crowed.
Yami hissed as Frostbite Fox switched to defence mode.
"What does that do?" Jamie demanded.
"Your fox can't change to attack mode while it's face up on the field, plus you get to chose between either letting me gain 1300 life points, or taking that much damage yourself." Gansley gloated.
"Damn." Joey growled.
'Take the damage.'
"'Kura…"
'It's my match too. Take the damage; they have enough life points already.'
"I'd rather take the damage then let you have any more life points." Jamie said out loud, allowing for Bakura's point about the Big Five's life points. Hers dropped to 2700. "I activate Chicken Coop and end my turn."
During her end phase, a chicken coop appeared, with a chicken sat on the roof.
"Uhhh… Jamie?" Joey asked, confused.
"Trust me, I have a plan." She replied simply.
"Plan or not, you're going to lose." 'Tristan' sniggered.
"His voice changed!" Joey complained.
"They've switched." Yami nodded.
Deepsea Warrior changed out for Nightmare Penguin.
"You're the one who fought Tea, aren't you?" Jamie demanded, "Crank or something."
"Crump, my name is Crump." 'Tristan' squawked, as he set a card in defence mode, "You'd do well to remember that." He set a magic or trap card face down. "Not that it's going to matter much longer. Not once three turns have passed and we can play any ritual card we like."
Joey growled, Yami's scowl deepened and Jamie poked Bakura, who had as much of an idea about what the Big Five were planning as she did.
"It's your move, Wheeler." Crump snorted, waving at the blonde, who scowled and drew.
"Legendary Fisherman, take down his face down card!"
Crump activated his face down card.
The attack reflected back off of a shield that suddenly covered the face down monster and destroyed both Joey's Fisherman and Yami's Gazelle.
Crump was sniggering when the smoke cleared. "You walked straight into my Mirror Force." He laughed, frustrating the others in the duel even further. "It looks like we'll be taking your bodies sooner then we thought."
"I don't think so." Yami growled, having been waved to take his turn by Joey, setting a pair of cards face down and setting something in defence mode. "Jamie, if you would..."
Jamie drew. "Frostbite Fox can't attack," She called after setting another card face down, to go with her face down card and her chicken coop, "But she does have another effect. By skipping my Battle Phase, I can remove one monster from play from the field and I choose your face down card."
Crump's card disappeared.
"Your move, bird boy." She waved at him, smirking as another chicken appeared on the roof of her chicken coop.
Nightmare Penguin swapped out for Judge Man.
"I pay one thousand life points to activate my Deck Master's special ability!" Johnson called, sounding far too amused by this, "Clear the courtroom!"
Jamie's Fox and Yami's face down card disappeared to the graveyard, causing Jamie to swear rather loudly, especially when their points dropped by five hundred per monster destroyed by the move.
"And I summon my Clockwork Knight." The 1900 attack point Machine monster appeared on the field, water splashing against metallic legs, sword raised. "Now, let's see." He scanned the field, taking in how much of a threat people were.
No one had any monsters out, Jamie had two cards face down and her Chicken Coop, with two chickens, whatever good they were, Yami had three cards face down and Joey had just one.
"Clockwork Knight. Attack Mr Wheeler directly!"
"I activate Stop Attack!" Jamie bellowed, using her trap to protect Joey's life points.
"I active Trap Jammer!" Johnson's face down card flipped face up and Jamie's trap exploded.
"Magic Cylinder!" Yami's voice was just audible over the noise.
Clockwork Knight reached Joey, was absorbed by the cylinder and fired back at Johnson, knocking the Big Five's total down to 6550.
"Nice try Johnson, but with my friends backing me up, you don't stand a chance!" Joey crowed.
Yami was slightly less confident. The clock was ticking. They had to end it this turn, or the Big Five would use their Ritual card and he had a horrible feeling he knew what they were going to summon.
"My move?" Joey asked, taunting Johnson.
"Just go."
"I summon Rocket Warrior." Joey called, summoning his Light Warrior/Effect monster to the field. "And I use my Deck Master's special ability to transfer one thousand attack points from the Flame Swordsman to my new monster."
Rocket Warrior's attack grew to 2500, while Flame Swordsman's dropped to 800.
"Now Rocket Warrior, attack his Clockwork Knight!" The warrior monster blasted straight through the machine, destroying it easily and knocking another six hundred points off. "That's all from me."
"My move then." Yami nodded, drawing and grinning, "I play Monster Reborn to bring back my King's Knight and then sacrifice him for my Dark Magician Girl!" King's Knight appeared only briefly, then Dark Magician Girl appeared on the field with a flourish of her staff. "Dark Magician Girl, attack him directly!"
Another 2000 down, another 3850 to go…
"I'm done."
"My move then." Jamie nodded, drawing and nodding to herself, "I play Reincarnate Fox Spirit, which allows me to summon my Frostbite Fox back from the Graveyard and I activate one of my facedown cards, Kitsune Clan, which increases Frostbite's attack by another five hundred to go with the two hundred your Legendary Ocean gives her, giving her a grand total of thirty one hundred attack points! Frostbite Fox! Attack!"
This fresh assault left the Big Five with just 750 life points left.
"Next turn, we're going to end it." Jamie smirked, "Your move."
"You won't get a next move." It wasn't Johnson any more, the Deck Master was Jinzo, who destroyed all of thier trap cards the moment he took the field, causing Jamie to cuss, so it had to be Lector, "It's been three turns since we activated Alter of Mist and I hold the most powerful card the Big Five have, here in my hand."
"What are you summoning?" Yami demanded warily.
"I'm sure you'll know, when I tell you the Ritual Card I'm pulling to my hand is Dragon Revival Ritual."
"No!" Yami yelped.
"What?" Jamie demanded.
"He can't, can he Yuge?" Joey demanded, "He doesn't have enough monsters!"
"Very perceptive. However I do have five Deck Masters, all of different attributes, who I can use as tribute!" Lector laughed.
Joey swore, making Jamie turn to him and demand an explanation.
"They're planning on summoning Five God Dragon." Yami explained for him.
"Five God Dragon?"
"Oh of course, you haven't been introduced yet." Lector sounded amused by this fact, "It's time to remedy that fact." The big five took it in turns to call their Deck Masters and then all five of them disappeared. "Come forth, Five Headed Dragon!"
The dragon that appeared towered over everyone, bellowing so loudly that it drowned out their voices and even once it had settled on the field, its low growling made it difficult to hear anything.
Jamie backed up a step. "Arceus damn it…" She muttered, "That thing's bigger then Palkia!"
"Jamie be careful." Yami called over, "That thing has five thousand attack points."
"You're kidding me!" Jamie protested, looking at the Pharaoh.
"I wish. We're just lucky it can't attack this turn."
"You're half correct." Lector snorted, somehow his voice carried easier then theirs did, probably lousy coding or a ploy by Noa, "You see when it's summoned, Five Headed Dragon destroys all magic, trap and monster cards on the field!"
Everything was blown away, including A Legendary Ocean and all their monsters.
"I play one card face down. Now take your last turn."
"What are we supposed to do?" Joey asked, defeat in his tone, "It's got five thousand attack points and only one type of monster can defeat it…"
"What do you mean?" Jamie demanded.
"Five God… I mean Five Headed Dragon can't be defeated by an element that makes it up. So Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Dark monsters are completely useless against it." Yami explained.
"So that leaves Light and Divine, right?"
Yami nodded, seeing where her train of thoughts was going. She wouldn't have a chance to summon her Seven Tail Fox though, unfortunately. Not now that Five God was on the field. It was just too powerful for the much weaker foxes. Unless…
"We can beat it." Yami said confidently. He had a plan, and Jamie had a plan… "Just have confidence in your deck and in your Deck Master."
"Alright, Yuge." Joey nodded and drew, pulling a face as he saw what it was. "Alright, I set these three cards face down." The cards appeared on the field, "Swordsman, go for it." Joey nodded to the Flame Swordsman, "I call my Deck Master to the field."
Flame Swordsman stepped confidently out from behind his master and stood between Joey and the humongous dragon. "Your move Yuge."
Jamie frowned slightly when Joey called Yami by Yugi's nickname but said nothing. This was no time to be causing trouble. Maybe later, once this match was over, but not while everything hung on the edge like this.
"I call my Deck Master to the field." The Dark Magician leapt over Yami and landed gracefully on the field.
"You're making this too easy." Lector sniggered, "Once I destroy your Deck Masters, you'll lose."
"It's still our turn." Yami retorted, "We'll show you what real teamwork can do. I play Polymerisation to fuse together the Dark Magician and the Flame Swordsman." Dark Flare Knight appeared with a total of only 2200 attack points.
"You fool!" Lector smirked, "That new monster of yours in a creature of Darkness and Five Headed Dragon can only be killed by a creature of light."
"We'll see. Dark Flare Knight, attack!"
"What?" Jamie yelped, watching in horror as Yugi and Joey's combined Deck Master was blown away.
"They're gone! Just one left!" Lector crowed.
"I think not." Yami retorted, still standing, "Thanks to Dark Flare Knight's special ability. When he's destroyed, I can summon Mirage Knight to take its place." A knight in golden armour appeared. This time it was a Light monster with 2800 attack points.
Still not enough.
Or it wasn't until Mirage Knight absorbed the attack points of Five God Dragon, pushing it up to a punishing total of 7800.
Five Headed Dragon exploded.
"Both your Deck Master and your life points are gone." Yami smirked, "That means this duel is done."
"Not quite." Lector laughed, as his points dropped to 375, "I activated my face down card, A Deal with Dark Ruler, which, in exchange for half my life points, stopped me taking damage when your Knight destroyed my dragon, and it allows me to summon this…"
The ground shook and a huge skeletal dragon appeared. Not as big as Five God Dragon but still terrifying.
Mirage Knight separated back into Dark Magician and Flame Swordsman.
"Alright," Yami suddenly looked a lot less confident, "I activate Magical Hats, so you'll have to find my Dark Magician if you want to destroy him and I pay one thousand life points to duplicate the effect of any magic card on the field and I choose Magical Hats, which hides Joey's Deck Master."
The Pharaoh gave Jamie a look which clearly said 'sorry', but she knew he couldn't do that for her. Her turn was next after all, she had no monsters to hide and even if she did, Yami couldn't afford to pay the life point cost to duplicate Magical Hats again.
"It's my move then." Jamie sighed, drawing her card and staring at it.
"My only choice is this," She sighed. "I play one card face down in defence mode and two cards face down, then I have to end my turn."
"You're serious?" Joey gave her a scared look. "That's all."
"I have no other moves." Jamie shrugged nonchalantly. "Not this turn anyway."
"Then it's my move!" Lector sounded amused. "And I hate to tell you this but your hats are worthless."
"What?"
"My monster can attack every monster on your side of the field." Lector sniggered, "So I can take down both of your Deck Masters and Francis's face down monster at the same time, even with those hats."
"Mew…" Jamie looked over to Joey and Yami, who had suddenly been hit by the realisation of what that meant…
"Then this is it?" Joey asked, worried.
"I'm sorry." Yami's head was bowed, his tone defeatist.
Lector was laughing manically. "Prepare to lose it all! Berserk Dragon! Attack!"
Berserk Dragon bellowed his superiority and started charging his attack, flames growing inside his mouth…
"I'm sorry, Tristan, I tried my best…" Yugi's voice only just carried over the noise.
"We're not done." Jamie called, then turned to Lector, "You declared an attack, which means my face down card gets flipped up." It flipped to reveal a startlingly white fox who looked like it was formed from wax and had a small wick in its head.
Yugi's eyes widened, shocked, then he gave a relieved grin.
"And the monster I had face down was my Candle Fox." Jamie continued to explain. "One of my weaker foxes, but she has a flip effect. When she's flip summoned, I can destroy one monster on my opponent's side of the field."
Berserk Dragon was consumed by a ray of light that dropped out of the sky and took the dark dragon with it when it vanished.
"And with your Deck Master gone, all five of you lose the Duel." Jamie smirked. "We win. Tristan goes free."
"No, this can't be! I can't be defeated like this!" 'Tristan' collapsed to his knees in disbelief.
"Nice move, Jamie!" Joey crowed.
"Thanks." She didn't admit that she was lucky that Berserk Dragon had attacked all of their monsters simultaneously. Her deck just wasn't designed to work in a multiway duel.
Jamie stepped forward as the others climbed down off the rocks.
"You cow." Lector staggered to his feet, "How dare you defeat me in such a manner?"
"My name is Jamelia Francis, I'm the Aspiring Champion for the Sinnoh League. I don't answer questions from liars and scumbags like you." Midnight blue eyes flashed angrily, "Now release Tristan's body, or do I have to go to Noa?"
"You little witch!" Lector lunged forward, and for a moment he had his hands around her throat, then the Ring was reacting and Lector went flying, crashing into the ground hard.
"That is enough!" Noa's voice echoed around them, sounding furious. "You five have failed me for the last time."
In a burst of white light Tristan, and everyone possessing him, vanished.
"Hey!" Jamie protested.
"Get back here!" Joey bellowed.
"Should've known they wouldn't keep their word." Duke snarled.
"Are you alright?" Serenity asked Jamie.
The Trainer nodded, sapphire eyes showing how troubled she was by this whole thing. "Sorry." She muttered.
"For what?" Joey demanded, "You saved our hides out there."
"I let them get away."
"Can't be helped." Yami shrugged, "You sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine. Just tired." Jamie waved him off. "So now what? We don't know where Kaiba is and Noa sounded pretty pissed, so I don't think we'll be seeing him or the Big Five for a while…"
"Where ever Noa is, Tristan's virtual body is likely to be nearby." Joey growled.
"And how do we find Noa?" Duke demanded.
There was silence for a moment or two then Joey snapped his fingers and looked at Tristan.
The robot monkey backed up nervously. "What?"
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Their cave was well hidden, part of the tunnel system beneath Mt Coronet and plenty of escape routes. The teams hadn't found them yet, as they focused on taking out each person who entered the caves.
Raids were made outside. There were three bases nearby, and they had successfully gathered a fair bit of information about the plans.
The Trainers left here were ruthless, mirroring the ruthlessness of the nearest Team.
Anyone who wasn't was already gone.
So when that Meowth found them…
A talking Meowth. Who would have believed it if they hadn't seen it?
He just appeared during breakfast one day, well out of reach for the Trainers, asking if they were the local Resistance.
News was passed around.
They weren't alone. They weren't the only ones left fighting.
Something big was going down.
The Meowth took their news and was gone the next day.
Those that feared it had been a trick were proved wrong when the Teams weren't immediately led to their base.
So there was hope.
Hope was too valuable to waste in these times.
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They had no choice but to trust Noa now.
After defeating Seto by using Mokuba as a human shield and turning the Kaiba Brothers to stone, Noa had been thoroughly convinced of his victory, however Yugi and Yami, who had been more angry then Yugi's friends had seen them in a while, had somehow managed to defeat him, even when starting off with only 400 life points against Noa's scary, but not record breaking total of 7400.
This had freed, not only Seto and Mokuba, but all of them from their imprisonment in stone, for, after Tea had annoyed Noa with her friendship speeches, Noa had started turning each of those still on the ground into statues, one by one, after each of Yami's turns.
But with this final failure, the one Noa had been trying to impress had finally revealed himself.
Noa wasn't the only Kaiba locked inside this virtual world. Gozabora had fled here after being beaten at the game of business by his step son and was now planning to use his virtual network to hack into every computer on the planet and trap every living human inside the virtual world.
He claimed it would make him a god, though Jamie was willing to put this last one as ravings of a lunatic.
Crazy or not, he had sealed off all the exits from the virtual world, leaving them trapped and unable to do anything about his insane scheme.
Until Noa had told them about a back door he himself had programmed into this virtual world that Gozabora couldn't know about.
No one trusted him, really but there was no other choice.
If they wanted to stop Gozabora, and Jamie did, if only to stop Gozabora piggy backing on a Galactic device and ending up in her world, they had to go with Noa and hope that, for once, the small, obsessive, slightly crazy and now betrayed young Kaiba would actually help them do this, if only to strike back at his father.
"This is it." Noa played with some controls and gestured towards the door, "Go through here and you'll be back in the real world."
"No tricks." Bakura, who had grabbed control the moment Jamie had been free of the stone, the fact her avatar was frozen in time forever having somehow affected his code too, snarled, "Or I'll hunt you down and deal with you myself. Got it?"
"Don't worry, this door leads back home." Noa retorted, having had quite enough of the spirit's attitude.
Bakura scowled but when Jamie appeared at his side, he retreated, allowing her to face whatever was behind that door.
"Ready?" Noa asked.
Before anyone could answer, the door was flung open and everyone was blinded by a brilliant white light.
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Haunter was exploring the halls of the huge ship.
He and the Gym Leader, for that was the role that the Trainer who defended Domino City had filled in his mind, as it was the Gym Leader's job to protect the city they were based in, had made an agreement. He would protect the infirmary and in exchange she would allow him to cause trouble for the dark one who had called the shadows that had absorbed his partner-in-crime's old host and caused him so much pain when he'd tried to help.
But that had been, if the Doctor's complaints were any thing to go by, over five hours ago and he had decided that the friend the Gym Leader wanted to protect would be safer if the dark one was off the airship and as such had taken delight in teasing the man, who had been hit by Confuse Ray and then fallen for the illusions Haunter cast all too easily, and making him leave the blimp.
He'd lost interest in that game when he'd found that the golden dagger sheathed in the gold, blood and souls, which made up the item, was one of the few human weapons Haunter had ever come across that could actually hurt him.
He never wanted to touch one of gold those things again; spirit shadow was more then welcome to them. They hurt the ghost Pokémon every time he touched one, and the souls used to create the items had called to him when he'd been struck by the knife, whispering stories into his mind.
After that he'd been desperate to lose the knife wielding maniac long enough to ghost through a wall and escape.
However during this flight of fear he'd managed to get himself lost.
The robots weren't too much of a problem. He'd only had to destroy one or two before working out how to slip past them without being caught, and they didn't have any weapons that could hurt him anyway. Those silly light beams might be hot and bright, but they didn't do more then pass through his spectral body and burn the wall.
It was the fact that he hadn't kept track of where 'he' had been 'running' while he'd been winding the dark one up and the ship had far too many corridors.
Yet he hadn't come across a single human being.
This was both weird and boring at the same time. It was fascinating to see how machinery did the jobs of people, but at the same time, he couldn't scare these machines.
He knew that for a fact.
He'd tried.
He had caused some of them to break though. That had been fun for a while, but since they had all broken the same way, it had gotten old rather quickly.
So now he was just going from room to room trying to find his way back to the blimp, knowing the Gym Leader would be annoyed if she knew he'd left his post and, since spirit shadow was currently playing musical chairs with bodies and was currently sat in hers it was likely he would be too, which would be a shame considering Haunter really quite liked the ghost who normally rested inside the white-haired light, and, though Haunter didn't strictly belong to spirit shadow in the same sense as the Gym Leader's Pokémon belonged to her, he did want to continue working with the other ghost, even if its soul reeked with blood.
After all, that ghost was the most interesting person Haunter had met in over a hundred years. Who could blame him for having gotten bored after all that time and deciding he wanted someone to cause mischief with?
Haunter slipped through yet another, identical, door, only to find the ice dragon's brother running down the corridor.
Except it wasn't the ice dragon's brother…
This was interesting…
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It was hopeless.
No matter what they did, they were going to lose to the power of Slifer the Sky Dragon. Marik had actually done it, actually built an unstoppable combination...
Yami, who had been shaking ever since he'd first felt the power that radiated from the 'God card', fell to his knees.
He'd failed.
When he lost, the Puzzle would belong to Marik, the world would be in danger and Yugi...
Marik had sworn when this match started that if Yami lost, Yugi would die...
And yet there was nothing he could do. He had no more powerful monsters to play, no hidden tricks up his sleeve. There was nothing in their deck that could defeat a monster that was impervious to trap cards and had eight thousand attack points...
"Yami, wait!" Yugi's mental cry broke through the stunned acknowledgement of defeat. "This isn't real!"
'What?'
"This isn't real! We defeated Slifer! This is just a memory!"
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"Please Tide, you have to get up!" Jamie begged her Marshtomp, desperately pleading with it to get to its feet.
"Just switch Pokémon." The Magma Admin, Ashley, sniggered, her Houndoom roaring in victory, "It's obvious that it can't continue."
"Tide, please, I need you!" Jamie watched as the swamp Pokémon pushed itself to its hands and knees.
"Unless..." Ashley's smirk widened, "Oh don't tell me you only have your Marshtomp left."
Jamie froze, having feared that she would work it out sooner or later.
"I have to say I'm impressed with your stones, kid." The admin was full out laughing now, "And impressed you almost pulled it off. If you'd defeated my Houndoom, I would have left, never knowing this last stand was more desperate then heroic."
"My team have beaten every Grunt you have." Jamie growled, keeping Ashley talking, giving her Marshtomp more time to recover, "And Tide and I have defeated two of your Pokémon."
"But now your little 'last stand' is over, kid." Ashley shook her head, aware of what Jamie was trying, and amused that the brat thought she could pull it off. "Surrender and I might consider sparing your sister and her friends, in exchange for you joining Magma."
"Jamie!"
Sapphire met sapphire as Jamie gazed at her terrified little sister.
"Two words and she goes free."
"Marsh..." Marshtomp squirted her in the face with a spout of water, bringing Jamie's attention away from her sister and back to the battle. "Marshtomp Mar Marshtomp!" The Pokémon, who had staggered back to his feet, was not demonstrating its strength.
"You want to fight?" Jamie asked, surprised, though the little voice in her head told her she shouldn't be, all her Pokémon were as bloody minded as she was.
"Mar!" Her starter Pokémon nodded.
"You won't win." Ashley warned,
"We'll fight and we'll win." Jamie declared, "Right Tide?"
"Marshtomp!" Tide pounded his chest.
"Houndoom, Fire Blast!"
Tide leapt away, realising too late that it wasn't him the attack was heading for, but his Trainer, firing off a Water Pulse attack to try to defend her...
Steam flooded the room and for a second she thought her Pokémon had actually managed to stop the attack.
Then there was heat and pain and screaming...
'Jamie!' The little voice in her head, the one she often listened to in emergency situations, had suddenly become male and much louder and insistent. 'This is ancient history dragged up by Noa! It's a memory! Snap out of it!'
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"What're you saying Yuge?" Joey was confused. He'd only just broken free of Marik's mind control and now his mind kept throwing up the fact that Yugi was talking like… talking like he didn't expect to get out of this alive.
"I'm saying I've decided to save you, Joey." Yugi explained.
"I can't let you do this, Yuge!" Joey protested. He couldn't let Yugi die to save him! He couldn't!
"It's my decision," Yugi's voice wavered, exhaustion and pain obvious from his tone, but no fear, not anymore, not even with full knowledge of what he was about to do. "So now..."
"No Yugi!" Joey shook his head, cursing that he'd let Marik grab him, that he'd let Marik brain wash him into hurting Yugi as badly as he had, cursing that there was nothing he could do to stop what was about to happen.
"Take care of my Puzzle." Yugi's smile was peaceful. He'd accepted his fate, he'd done what he'd been trying to do, and he trusted that Joey could protect the Puzzle after... "Now, Ref Panel, direct the attack towards me!"
"NO!" Joey bellowed as the Meteor of Destruction struck Yugi, who cried out as the flames struck, the smoke obscuring Yugi for a moment or two, then his friend could be seen all too plainly as Yugi fell, either unconscious already or nearly there, at the same time as Joey's key box opened.
"Please." Yugi managed to raise his head but his voice was weak, so much so that Joey had to strain to hear him. "You have thirty seconds to free yourself. Then the anchor falls."
"No..." Joey shook his head, still trying to think, "Don't give up, Yugi, I'll think of something." He pleaded when Yugi's last act, before he slipped into the painless black of unconsciousness, was to remove his Duel Disk. Then the idea hit him like a ton of bricks. Meteor of Destruction's other effect... "Red Eyes, attack me directly!" Joey ordered.
His dragon answered his desperate plea, blasting him with an incredibly watered down version of his Inferno Fire Blast, knocking his life points down to zero, opening Yugi's key box.
Leaving behind his Duel Disk, the Puzzle and his key, he swung across, horribly aware of the timer counting down until the charge inside blew and both he and Yugi were dragged under without their keys…
"Got it!" Joey was triumphant as he grabbed the key for Yugi's cuff, but the feeling lasted only a few seconds, then the bomb blew, the anchor fell and both he and Yugi were pulled under.
The coldness of the water hit him hard and though he nearly dropped the key in his shock, it knocked the last of the fuzziness left by Marik's control out of his head.
He had to…
Wait…
The last thing he clearly remembered was passing through that portal that was supposed to lead back to reality.
A memory flashed past. Yugi saying Noa could tap into their memories…
Was this just…
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"Go, I'll hold them off!" Tristan demanded, looking at Duke and Serenity as they fled from the Rare Hunters.
"But…" Duke hesitated, looking back over his shoulder, only to see their enemies catching up.
"What about you?" Serenity squeaked.
"Just go!"
The three turned around at the sounds of something heavy landing. "Jamie?" Tristan asked, as the Trainer in question dismounted, gave the three a quick grin, and turned to the creeps, giving them her best death glare. "Hi guys. I can handle this."
"Where's Tea and Yugi?"
"I don't know, Tristan. Yugi got Kaiba to track Joey, but I was midair, searching for you lot, before I could hear where he and Tea are."
"Step aside, we're not afraid of any holograms." One of the Rare Hunters snorted.
Jamie snorted, "Marik obviously didn't tell you about me. Iblis is no hologram."
"Jamie?" Serenity's voice sounded uncertain.
"It's me, don't worry about your brother, Yugi'll find him. Trust me, he'll be fine." Jamie looked over her shoulder at the two boys, "Get her out of here."
The black haired male went to run for it, then something occurred to him.
"Why are you a monkey?" He demanded of Tristan.
The idea hit the three of them simultaneously. "The virtual world!"
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Seto turned away from Yugi's battle with Slifer. He'd been the one who had gotten Yugi's head back into the game when this had happened for real, but he wasn't going to play into one of Noa's illusions, if Yugi couldn't snap himself out of it, it was his problem.
Seto had far more important things to do, like find his brother.
And since this was a virtual representation of Domino, he was certain he knew where that creep Gozabora would be…
Kaiba Corp.
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When the realisation that this was just a memory hit one, it hit all of them simultaneously.
The memories vanished and they were left in Domino Central Park.
'That's it!' Bakura snarled as Jamie took a deep breath and tried to think things through clearly, 'I'm going to find Noa and I'm going to rip him limb from limb.'
"I think you might have to join the queue." Jamie watched Joey and Duke rant.
'I have first rights on any vengeance.' Bakura growled.
"Then come out here and tell them that." Jamie chuckled, making Joey and Duke wheel on her.
"What's so funny?"
"Bakura says he has first dibs on Noa." Jamie chuckled.
"Can he even Shadow Game anyone…" Joey was cut off when Yugi shoved him to one side, causing the blade, which was wielded by one of the Skull Knights who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, to miss Joey.
Yugi would have been hit instead, if Yami hadn't appeared behind him and pulled him out of the way, before summoning Black Luster Soldier, who easily took down the Skull Knights.
Yugi retreated into his soul room.
Fuelled by anger and inspired by Yami's summoning of his knight, Joey called on his Red Eyes Black Dragon, who blasted another set of monsters to kingdom come, while Jamie, midnight blue eyes flashing, called her Third Eye Fox.
They fled through the streets, avoiding staying in one place too long in order to avoid being swamped by Duel Monsters. Red Eyes and Third Eye Fox at their back, Black Luster Solider clearing the path in front of them.
"Attention, can all of you hear me! This is extremely important!"
They froze, costing Jamie her fox as a Skull Knight, who had just fifty more attack points then the Light Beast/Effect monster, took it down before Black Luster Solider could get to it.
"Noa!" Joey snarled.
"Get down here!" Jamie growled.
"This is a warning to all of you! The virtual world you're in is about to be destroyed!"
"That little…" Jamie's hands balled into fists, "He couldn't beat us, so he's gunna kill us?"
"I'll kill him first!" Bakura was out and furious.
"You'd better let us out of here, Noa!" Tea snapped.
"I'm sorry for what I have done, but a satellite will destroy the ship, taking the main computer with it! If it's destroyed the virtual world goes with it! Your minds will be gone forever!"
"Arceus!" Jamie swore. If the ship was destroyed it wasn't only their minds that would be gone. Their bodies would be too.
"Listen, I can help!" Noa pleaded, "The only exit is at the Domino Arcade. Hurry, time is running out!"
"Can we trust him?" Tea asked fearfully.
"Trust Noa? No way." Joey shook his head.
"We," Tristan made a monkey noise, "No choice, Joey."
"I hate to say it," Bakura growled to Jamie, "But the monkey has a point."
"Let's go." Yami nodded.
Bakura disappeared and they ran for the arcade.
"Guys!" Serenity squeaked.
The monsters were catching up again.
"Jamie, guard them, get them out safe." Joey nodded to Tea and Serenity. "We'll be right behind you."
"I'm not going without you Joey." Serenity protested.
"Just go, sis." Joey said, not taking his eyes off of the monsters.
"Come on Serenity. The boys can handle themselves." Jamie summoned one of her Cloud Foxes as Serenity picked up Tristan, nodded to Joey and led Tea, Serenity and Duke down the street. They were only a block away now. They'd make it and she had faith Joey would get there safely too.
They reached the arcade and Jamie covered the entrance while the others started the upload to the real world, using the huge dance stage.
"Jamie!" Joey darted in the door.
"Serenity's gone. Tea and Tristan too."
"You and Duke go next, we'll be right behind you." Yami gestured.
"Alright." The pair of them took the stage.
And woke up in the real world.
Brown eyes, instead of sapphire focused on the child sat in the seat at the desk. "Noa!"
Joey, who had just woken up and only just avoided hitting himself in the face with the glass, saw Yugi was still out and had time to swear and get between the kid and 'Jamie' before a rather pissed off Tomb Robber got out of the pod and started stalking towards the kid, as Bakura checked Jamie's Pokémon were ok before he turned towards the subject of his ire. "Bakura don't." Joey growled. "We still need him."
"Get out of my way."
"I understand why you're so pissed off, but we don't have time for this. Unless you want Jamie to die because you had to challenge Noa?"
"You should go." Noa, who was still in Mokuba's body, warned them.
"You'd better bring Yugi back safely." Joey snarled at Noa.
"I will."
They ran for it, reaching the blimp as the engines started.
"Come on, Yuge…" Joey hovered by the entrance.
"There they are!" Tristan sounded relieved as he saw Seto, Mokuba and Yugi running towards the blimp as the blimp started lifting off.
Tristan caught Mokuba, who was thrown at them by Seto, the CEO leapt on and Joey managed to pull Yugi onto the blimp, only by dint of hanging practically off of the ledge.
"Go. Go! GO!" Tea screeched.
The blimp shot off as fast as it could, but it wasn't going to get away…
Kaiba raced towards the bridge.
A few seconds later, the balloon part of the blimp disappeared and the huge shuttle like ship gained speed, breaking free of the explosion.
"We made it!" Joey cheered as they left the huge ball of fire behind.
"So now what?" Tristan asked.
"Mai!" Jamie squeaked, sapphire blue eyes showing her panic.
She raced for the infirmary, Joey on her tail, and though they caught a glimpse of Marik, it appeared that Haunter, who was still hovering outside the door, had kept the psychopath at bay as the Doctor reported that no one had disturbed them and there had been no change.
Both good news and bad…
Haunter, instead of going off and winding up Marik like Jamie had assumed he would, instead stuck close to Jamie, making her worry about what Marik had tried while she had been gone.
"Are you alright?" She asked the Gas Pokémon, who nodded. "Go have fun." She would have pushed him, had he not been a ghost. "You've earned it."
"We've all earned a vacation." Joey growled, "But I'm going to beat Marik and get Mai back before I go on mine."
Jamie nodded.
Thinking of vacations, that reminded her. She needed to talk to Kaiba.
It looked like her break was over…
LINE-RECOGNITION-HAS-GONE-AGAIN
Mokuba's PC which was hooked up to the Kaiba Corp mainframe had been left on when he'd left the office quickly to deal with problems during Battle City, but it would be months before something crashed badly enough for Mokuba to need to look through the backup files to see if he had a file with all the changes in.
As such it would be months before he would notice a file called virtnoa.bac
Of course the Big Five were confident; they were the ones with the ridiculous life point total, and they believed that their five Deck Masters would give them an advantage over Yugi, Joey and Jamie's three.
"I'll start." Whoever was controlling Tristan now was using Deepsea Warrior as his deck master.
"Gansley." Yami growled, "Be careful. When he has two monsters on the field, his deck master allows him to bounce back the attack directly to us." He looked down the row to find Joey nodded and Jamie thinking.
"I play A Legendary Ocean." Gansley sounded far too happy about that.
A tidal wave appeared from nowhere.
"Get to higher ground!" Duke yelped, pushing Tea and Serenity away from the battle, towards the nearby rock outcrops.
The water crashed down in the middle of the field, rushing over the competitor's heads.
For thirty seconds or so the Duellists felt like they were drowning but their feet were leaden, leaving them unable to swim for the surface... then the water level dropped, falling to around knee height.
While Yugi and the others coughed up water, Gansley summoned Legendary Fisherman, in attack mode.
"Hey!" Joey protested, "You can't summon him without a sacrifice! He's a level five monster!"
"Actually..." Yami growled, "He can. Legendary Ocean reduces the level of all water monsters by one and increased their attack and defence by 200."
"All water monsters?" Jamie smirked, sensing Bakura's amusement at her elation.
"On both sides of the field." Yami nodded, guessing that she'd come up with a plan.
Jamie considered her hand and nodded her understanding as Gansley played one card face down.
"Your move," Gansley indicated Joey, who nodded, looking particularly amused by something, "Huh, guess what?" Joey chuckled, "Guess you're not the only one who can pull that trick." He summoned something, only for it to vanish under the waves without even showing its face properly. "Now I have a hidden monster too." He played one card face down to go with it, "Your move, Yuge."
Yugi had no big play, not that Joey or Jamie expected one of him this early into the match. Instead he just played two cards face down and nodded to Jamie.
She had a plan already, and set one monster in face down defence mode, which was pretty standard for her low level foxes, all of whom had special effects, and set two cards face down. "And then it's back to you, Gansley." She chuckled, completely unconcerned.
Gansley wasn't bothered either, and proceeded to summon his Rainbow Snake by tributing his Legendary Fisherman and went to attack Yami.
"I activate Spellbinding Circle." Yami countered, not only trapping the snake above the water, but decreasing its attack power by 700.
"Nice one, Yuge" Joey grinned.
Yami grinned back.
"Fine, I activate Alter of Mist." Gansley snapped. "In three more turns, I'll be able to use any Ritual card in my deck!" Gansley scowled. "It's your move, Wheeler."
"Let me show you what a real Legendary Fisherman can do." Joey crowed, "Legendary Fisherman, spear that over sized snake!"
The Big Five lost five hundred and fifty life points, which barely made a dent in their huge total, but it was something.
"And now it's Yuge's turn. Show him what you got, pal!"
Yami nodded, "I summon Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts, in attack mode!" The huge furry creature appeared on the field, roaring its defiance. "Attack him directly!"
The Big Five lost another fifteen hundred, pushing them below the ten thousand mark.
"That end's my turn." Yami looked pleased.
"And starts mine." Jamie smirked, "And thanks to your Legendary Ocean, it's going to be a good one. I flip my Blazetail Fox, using its effect to burn away 500 points!" The Beast/Effect monster appeared on the field and shot fireballs at Gansley, who flinched away from the heat as his points dropped. "And not only that, I sacrifice my Blazetail Fox for my Frostbite Fox!"
Joey cheered, remembering the icy fox that was Jamie's trump card when she couldn't get her Seven Tail Fox out, was a water monster, so not only did it rise to 2600, but she could get it out with only one tribute.
"Now Frostbite, attack him directly!"
"I activate Changing Destiny!" Gansley crowed.
Yami hissed as Frostbite Fox switched to defence mode.
"What does that do?" Jamie demanded.
"Your fox can't change to attack mode while it's face up on the field, plus you get to chose between either letting me gain 1300 life points, or taking that much damage yourself." Gansley gloated.
"Damn." Joey growled.
'Take the damage.'
"'Kura…"
'It's my match too. Take the damage; they have enough life points already.'
"I'd rather take the damage then let you have any more life points." Jamie said out loud, allowing for Bakura's point about the Big Five's life points. Hers dropped to 2700. "I activate Chicken Coop and end my turn."
During her end phase, a chicken coop appeared, with a chicken sat on the roof.
"Uhhh… Jamie?" Joey asked, confused.
"Trust me, I have a plan." She replied simply.
"Plan or not, you're going to lose." 'Tristan' sniggered.
"His voice changed!" Joey complained.
"They've switched." Yami nodded.
Deepsea Warrior changed out for Nightmare Penguin.
"You're the one who fought Tea, aren't you?" Jamie demanded, "Crank or something."
"Crump, my name is Crump." 'Tristan' squawked, as he set a card in defence mode, "You'd do well to remember that." He set a magic or trap card face down. "Not that it's going to matter much longer. Not once three turns have passed and we can play any ritual card we like."
Joey growled, Yami's scowl deepened and Jamie poked Bakura, who had as much of an idea about what the Big Five were planning as she did.
"It's your move, Wheeler." Crump snorted, waving at the blonde, who scowled and drew.
"Legendary Fisherman, take down his face down card!"
Crump activated his face down card.
The attack reflected back off of a shield that suddenly covered the face down monster and destroyed both Joey's Fisherman and Yami's Gazelle.
Crump was sniggering when the smoke cleared. "You walked straight into my Mirror Force." He laughed, frustrating the others in the duel even further. "It looks like we'll be taking your bodies sooner then we thought."
"I don't think so." Yami growled, having been waved to take his turn by Joey, setting a pair of cards face down and setting something in defence mode. "Jamie, if you would..."
Jamie drew. "Frostbite Fox can't attack," She called after setting another card face down, to go with her face down card and her chicken coop, "But she does have another effect. By skipping my Battle Phase, I can remove one monster from play from the field and I choose your face down card."
Crump's card disappeared.
"Your move, bird boy." She waved at him, smirking as another chicken appeared on the roof of her chicken coop.
Nightmare Penguin swapped out for Judge Man.
"I pay one thousand life points to activate my Deck Master's special ability!" Johnson called, sounding far too amused by this, "Clear the courtroom!"
Jamie's Fox and Yami's face down card disappeared to the graveyard, causing Jamie to swear rather loudly, especially when their points dropped by five hundred per monster destroyed by the move.
"And I summon my Clockwork Knight." The 1900 attack point Machine monster appeared on the field, water splashing against metallic legs, sword raised. "Now, let's see." He scanned the field, taking in how much of a threat people were.
No one had any monsters out, Jamie had two cards face down and her Chicken Coop, with two chickens, whatever good they were, Yami had three cards face down and Joey had just one.
"Clockwork Knight. Attack Mr Wheeler directly!"
"I activate Stop Attack!" Jamie bellowed, using her trap to protect Joey's life points.
"I active Trap Jammer!" Johnson's face down card flipped face up and Jamie's trap exploded.
"Magic Cylinder!" Yami's voice was just audible over the noise.
Clockwork Knight reached Joey, was absorbed by the cylinder and fired back at Johnson, knocking the Big Five's total down to 6550.
"Nice try Johnson, but with my friends backing me up, you don't stand a chance!" Joey crowed.
Yami was slightly less confident. The clock was ticking. They had to end it this turn, or the Big Five would use their Ritual card and he had a horrible feeling he knew what they were going to summon.
"My move?" Joey asked, taunting Johnson.
"Just go."
"I summon Rocket Warrior." Joey called, summoning his Light Warrior/Effect monster to the field. "And I use my Deck Master's special ability to transfer one thousand attack points from the Flame Swordsman to my new monster."
Rocket Warrior's attack grew to 2500, while Flame Swordsman's dropped to 800.
"Now Rocket Warrior, attack his Clockwork Knight!" The warrior monster blasted straight through the machine, destroying it easily and knocking another six hundred points off. "That's all from me."
"My move then." Yami nodded, drawing and grinning, "I play Monster Reborn to bring back my King's Knight and then sacrifice him for my Dark Magician Girl!" King's Knight appeared only briefly, then Dark Magician Girl appeared on the field with a flourish of her staff. "Dark Magician Girl, attack him directly!"
Another 2000 down, another 3850 to go…
"I'm done."
"My move then." Jamie nodded, drawing and nodding to herself, "I play Reincarnate Fox Spirit, which allows me to summon my Frostbite Fox back from the Graveyard and I activate one of my facedown cards, Kitsune Clan, which increases Frostbite's attack by another five hundred to go with the two hundred your Legendary Ocean gives her, giving her a grand total of thirty one hundred attack points! Frostbite Fox! Attack!"
This fresh assault left the Big Five with just 750 life points left.
"Next turn, we're going to end it." Jamie smirked, "Your move."
"You won't get a next move." It wasn't Johnson any more, the Deck Master was Jinzo, who destroyed all of thier trap cards the moment he took the field, causing Jamie to cuss, so it had to be Lector, "It's been three turns since we activated Alter of Mist and I hold the most powerful card the Big Five have, here in my hand."
"What are you summoning?" Yami demanded warily.
"I'm sure you'll know, when I tell you the Ritual Card I'm pulling to my hand is Dragon Revival Ritual."
"No!" Yami yelped.
"What?" Jamie demanded.
"He can't, can he Yuge?" Joey demanded, "He doesn't have enough monsters!"
"Very perceptive. However I do have five Deck Masters, all of different attributes, who I can use as tribute!" Lector laughed.
Joey swore, making Jamie turn to him and demand an explanation.
"They're planning on summoning Five God Dragon." Yami explained for him.
"Five God Dragon?"
"Oh of course, you haven't been introduced yet." Lector sounded amused by this fact, "It's time to remedy that fact." The big five took it in turns to call their Deck Masters and then all five of them disappeared. "Come forth, Five Headed Dragon!"
The dragon that appeared towered over everyone, bellowing so loudly that it drowned out their voices and even once it had settled on the field, its low growling made it difficult to hear anything.
Jamie backed up a step. "Arceus damn it…" She muttered, "That thing's bigger then Palkia!"
"Jamie be careful." Yami called over, "That thing has five thousand attack points."
"You're kidding me!" Jamie protested, looking at the Pharaoh.
"I wish. We're just lucky it can't attack this turn."
"You're half correct." Lector snorted, somehow his voice carried easier then theirs did, probably lousy coding or a ploy by Noa, "You see when it's summoned, Five Headed Dragon destroys all magic, trap and monster cards on the field!"
Everything was blown away, including A Legendary Ocean and all their monsters.
"I play one card face down. Now take your last turn."
"What are we supposed to do?" Joey asked, defeat in his tone, "It's got five thousand attack points and only one type of monster can defeat it…"
"What do you mean?" Jamie demanded.
"Five God… I mean Five Headed Dragon can't be defeated by an element that makes it up. So Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and Dark monsters are completely useless against it." Yami explained.
"So that leaves Light and Divine, right?"
Yami nodded, seeing where her train of thoughts was going. She wouldn't have a chance to summon her Seven Tail Fox though, unfortunately. Not now that Five God was on the field. It was just too powerful for the much weaker foxes. Unless…
"We can beat it." Yami said confidently. He had a plan, and Jamie had a plan… "Just have confidence in your deck and in your Deck Master."
"Alright, Yuge." Joey nodded and drew, pulling a face as he saw what it was. "Alright, I set these three cards face down." The cards appeared on the field, "Swordsman, go for it." Joey nodded to the Flame Swordsman, "I call my Deck Master to the field."
Flame Swordsman stepped confidently out from behind his master and stood between Joey and the humongous dragon. "Your move Yuge."
Jamie frowned slightly when Joey called Yami by Yugi's nickname but said nothing. This was no time to be causing trouble. Maybe later, once this match was over, but not while everything hung on the edge like this.
"I call my Deck Master to the field." The Dark Magician leapt over Yami and landed gracefully on the field.
"You're making this too easy." Lector sniggered, "Once I destroy your Deck Masters, you'll lose."
"It's still our turn." Yami retorted, "We'll show you what real teamwork can do. I play Polymerisation to fuse together the Dark Magician and the Flame Swordsman." Dark Flare Knight appeared with a total of only 2200 attack points.
"You fool!" Lector smirked, "That new monster of yours in a creature of Darkness and Five Headed Dragon can only be killed by a creature of light."
"We'll see. Dark Flare Knight, attack!"
"What?" Jamie yelped, watching in horror as Yugi and Joey's combined Deck Master was blown away.
"They're gone! Just one left!" Lector crowed.
"I think not." Yami retorted, still standing, "Thanks to Dark Flare Knight's special ability. When he's destroyed, I can summon Mirage Knight to take its place." A knight in golden armour appeared. This time it was a Light monster with 2800 attack points.
Still not enough.
Or it wasn't until Mirage Knight absorbed the attack points of Five God Dragon, pushing it up to a punishing total of 7800.
Five Headed Dragon exploded.
"Both your Deck Master and your life points are gone." Yami smirked, "That means this duel is done."
"Not quite." Lector laughed, as his points dropped to 375, "I activated my face down card, A Deal with Dark Ruler, which, in exchange for half my life points, stopped me taking damage when your Knight destroyed my dragon, and it allows me to summon this…"
The ground shook and a huge skeletal dragon appeared. Not as big as Five God Dragon but still terrifying.
Mirage Knight separated back into Dark Magician and Flame Swordsman.
"Alright," Yami suddenly looked a lot less confident, "I activate Magical Hats, so you'll have to find my Dark Magician if you want to destroy him and I pay one thousand life points to duplicate the effect of any magic card on the field and I choose Magical Hats, which hides Joey's Deck Master."
The Pharaoh gave Jamie a look which clearly said 'sorry', but she knew he couldn't do that for her. Her turn was next after all, she had no monsters to hide and even if she did, Yami couldn't afford to pay the life point cost to duplicate Magical Hats again.
"It's my move then." Jamie sighed, drawing her card and staring at it.
"My only choice is this," She sighed. "I play one card face down in defence mode and two cards face down, then I have to end my turn."
"You're serious?" Joey gave her a scared look. "That's all."
"I have no other moves." Jamie shrugged nonchalantly. "Not this turn anyway."
"Then it's my move!" Lector sounded amused. "And I hate to tell you this but your hats are worthless."
"What?"
"My monster can attack every monster on your side of the field." Lector sniggered, "So I can take down both of your Deck Masters and Francis's face down monster at the same time, even with those hats."
"Mew…" Jamie looked over to Joey and Yami, who had suddenly been hit by the realisation of what that meant…
"Then this is it?" Joey asked, worried.
"I'm sorry." Yami's head was bowed, his tone defeatist.
Lector was laughing manically. "Prepare to lose it all! Berserk Dragon! Attack!"
Berserk Dragon bellowed his superiority and started charging his attack, flames growing inside his mouth…
"I'm sorry, Tristan, I tried my best…" Yugi's voice only just carried over the noise.
"We're not done." Jamie called, then turned to Lector, "You declared an attack, which means my face down card gets flipped up." It flipped to reveal a startlingly white fox who looked like it was formed from wax and had a small wick in its head.
Yugi's eyes widened, shocked, then he gave a relieved grin.
"And the monster I had face down was my Candle Fox." Jamie continued to explain. "One of my weaker foxes, but she has a flip effect. When she's flip summoned, I can destroy one monster on my opponent's side of the field."
Berserk Dragon was consumed by a ray of light that dropped out of the sky and took the dark dragon with it when it vanished.
"And with your Deck Master gone, all five of you lose the Duel." Jamie smirked. "We win. Tristan goes free."
"No, this can't be! I can't be defeated like this!" 'Tristan' collapsed to his knees in disbelief.
"Nice move, Jamie!" Joey crowed.
"Thanks." She didn't admit that she was lucky that Berserk Dragon had attacked all of their monsters simultaneously. Her deck just wasn't designed to work in a multiway duel.
Jamie stepped forward as the others climbed down off the rocks.
"You cow." Lector staggered to his feet, "How dare you defeat me in such a manner?"
"My name is Jamelia Francis, I'm the Aspiring Champion for the Sinnoh League. I don't answer questions from liars and scumbags like you." Midnight blue eyes flashed angrily, "Now release Tristan's body, or do I have to go to Noa?"
"You little witch!" Lector lunged forward, and for a moment he had his hands around her throat, then the Ring was reacting and Lector went flying, crashing into the ground hard.
"That is enough!" Noa's voice echoed around them, sounding furious. "You five have failed me for the last time."
In a burst of white light Tristan, and everyone possessing him, vanished.
"Hey!" Jamie protested.
"Get back here!" Joey bellowed.
"Should've known they wouldn't keep their word." Duke snarled.
"Are you alright?" Serenity asked Jamie.
The Trainer nodded, sapphire eyes showing how troubled she was by this whole thing. "Sorry." She muttered.
"For what?" Joey demanded, "You saved our hides out there."
"I let them get away."
"Can't be helped." Yami shrugged, "You sure you're alright?"
"I'm fine. Just tired." Jamie waved him off. "So now what? We don't know where Kaiba is and Noa sounded pretty pissed, so I don't think we'll be seeing him or the Big Five for a while…"
"Where ever Noa is, Tristan's virtual body is likely to be nearby." Joey growled.
"And how do we find Noa?" Duke demanded.
There was silence for a moment or two then Joey snapped his fingers and looked at Tristan.
The robot monkey backed up nervously. "What?"
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Their cave was well hidden, part of the tunnel system beneath Mt Coronet and plenty of escape routes. The teams hadn't found them yet, as they focused on taking out each person who entered the caves.
Raids were made outside. There were three bases nearby, and they had successfully gathered a fair bit of information about the plans.
The Trainers left here were ruthless, mirroring the ruthlessness of the nearest Team.
Anyone who wasn't was already gone.
So when that Meowth found them…
A talking Meowth. Who would have believed it if they hadn't seen it?
He just appeared during breakfast one day, well out of reach for the Trainers, asking if they were the local Resistance.
News was passed around.
They weren't alone. They weren't the only ones left fighting.
Something big was going down.
The Meowth took their news and was gone the next day.
Those that feared it had been a trick were proved wrong when the Teams weren't immediately led to their base.
So there was hope.
Hope was too valuable to waste in these times.
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They had no choice but to trust Noa now.
After defeating Seto by using Mokuba as a human shield and turning the Kaiba Brothers to stone, Noa had been thoroughly convinced of his victory, however Yugi and Yami, who had been more angry then Yugi's friends had seen them in a while, had somehow managed to defeat him, even when starting off with only 400 life points against Noa's scary, but not record breaking total of 7400.
This had freed, not only Seto and Mokuba, but all of them from their imprisonment in stone, for, after Tea had annoyed Noa with her friendship speeches, Noa had started turning each of those still on the ground into statues, one by one, after each of Yami's turns.
But with this final failure, the one Noa had been trying to impress had finally revealed himself.
Noa wasn't the only Kaiba locked inside this virtual world. Gozabora had fled here after being beaten at the game of business by his step son and was now planning to use his virtual network to hack into every computer on the planet and trap every living human inside the virtual world.
He claimed it would make him a god, though Jamie was willing to put this last one as ravings of a lunatic.
Crazy or not, he had sealed off all the exits from the virtual world, leaving them trapped and unable to do anything about his insane scheme.
Until Noa had told them about a back door he himself had programmed into this virtual world that Gozabora couldn't know about.
No one trusted him, really but there was no other choice.
If they wanted to stop Gozabora, and Jamie did, if only to stop Gozabora piggy backing on a Galactic device and ending up in her world, they had to go with Noa and hope that, for once, the small, obsessive, slightly crazy and now betrayed young Kaiba would actually help them do this, if only to strike back at his father.
"This is it." Noa played with some controls and gestured towards the door, "Go through here and you'll be back in the real world."
"No tricks." Bakura, who had grabbed control the moment Jamie had been free of the stone, the fact her avatar was frozen in time forever having somehow affected his code too, snarled, "Or I'll hunt you down and deal with you myself. Got it?"
"Don't worry, this door leads back home." Noa retorted, having had quite enough of the spirit's attitude.
Bakura scowled but when Jamie appeared at his side, he retreated, allowing her to face whatever was behind that door.
"Ready?" Noa asked.
Before anyone could answer, the door was flung open and everyone was blinded by a brilliant white light.
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Haunter was exploring the halls of the huge ship.
He and the Gym Leader, for that was the role that the Trainer who defended Domino City had filled in his mind, as it was the Gym Leader's job to protect the city they were based in, had made an agreement. He would protect the infirmary and in exchange she would allow him to cause trouble for the dark one who had called the shadows that had absorbed his partner-in-crime's old host and caused him so much pain when he'd tried to help.
But that had been, if the Doctor's complaints were any thing to go by, over five hours ago and he had decided that the friend the Gym Leader wanted to protect would be safer if the dark one was off the airship and as such had taken delight in teasing the man, who had been hit by Confuse Ray and then fallen for the illusions Haunter cast all too easily, and making him leave the blimp.
He'd lost interest in that game when he'd found that the golden dagger sheathed in the gold, blood and souls, which made up the item, was one of the few human weapons Haunter had ever come across that could actually hurt him.
He never wanted to touch one of gold those things again; spirit shadow was more then welcome to them. They hurt the ghost Pokémon every time he touched one, and the souls used to create the items had called to him when he'd been struck by the knife, whispering stories into his mind.
After that he'd been desperate to lose the knife wielding maniac long enough to ghost through a wall and escape.
However during this flight of fear he'd managed to get himself lost.
The robots weren't too much of a problem. He'd only had to destroy one or two before working out how to slip past them without being caught, and they didn't have any weapons that could hurt him anyway. Those silly light beams might be hot and bright, but they didn't do more then pass through his spectral body and burn the wall.
It was the fact that he hadn't kept track of where 'he' had been 'running' while he'd been winding the dark one up and the ship had far too many corridors.
Yet he hadn't come across a single human being.
This was both weird and boring at the same time. It was fascinating to see how machinery did the jobs of people, but at the same time, he couldn't scare these machines.
He knew that for a fact.
He'd tried.
He had caused some of them to break though. That had been fun for a while, but since they had all broken the same way, it had gotten old rather quickly.
So now he was just going from room to room trying to find his way back to the blimp, knowing the Gym Leader would be annoyed if she knew he'd left his post and, since spirit shadow was currently playing musical chairs with bodies and was currently sat in hers it was likely he would be too, which would be a shame considering Haunter really quite liked the ghost who normally rested inside the white-haired light, and, though Haunter didn't strictly belong to spirit shadow in the same sense as the Gym Leader's Pokémon belonged to her, he did want to continue working with the other ghost, even if its soul reeked with blood.
After all, that ghost was the most interesting person Haunter had met in over a hundred years. Who could blame him for having gotten bored after all that time and deciding he wanted someone to cause mischief with?
Haunter slipped through yet another, identical, door, only to find the ice dragon's brother running down the corridor.
Except it wasn't the ice dragon's brother…
This was interesting…
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It was hopeless.
No matter what they did, they were going to lose to the power of Slifer the Sky Dragon. Marik had actually done it, actually built an unstoppable combination...
Yami, who had been shaking ever since he'd first felt the power that radiated from the 'God card', fell to his knees.
He'd failed.
When he lost, the Puzzle would belong to Marik, the world would be in danger and Yugi...
Marik had sworn when this match started that if Yami lost, Yugi would die...
And yet there was nothing he could do. He had no more powerful monsters to play, no hidden tricks up his sleeve. There was nothing in their deck that could defeat a monster that was impervious to trap cards and had eight thousand attack points...
"Yami, wait!" Yugi's mental cry broke through the stunned acknowledgement of defeat. "This isn't real!"
'What?'
"This isn't real! We defeated Slifer! This is just a memory!"
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"Please Tide, you have to get up!" Jamie begged her Marshtomp, desperately pleading with it to get to its feet.
"Just switch Pokémon." The Magma Admin, Ashley, sniggered, her Houndoom roaring in victory, "It's obvious that it can't continue."
"Tide, please, I need you!" Jamie watched as the swamp Pokémon pushed itself to its hands and knees.
"Unless..." Ashley's smirk widened, "Oh don't tell me you only have your Marshtomp left."
Jamie froze, having feared that she would work it out sooner or later.
"I have to say I'm impressed with your stones, kid." The admin was full out laughing now, "And impressed you almost pulled it off. If you'd defeated my Houndoom, I would have left, never knowing this last stand was more desperate then heroic."
"My team have beaten every Grunt you have." Jamie growled, keeping Ashley talking, giving her Marshtomp more time to recover, "And Tide and I have defeated two of your Pokémon."
"But now your little 'last stand' is over, kid." Ashley shook her head, aware of what Jamie was trying, and amused that the brat thought she could pull it off. "Surrender and I might consider sparing your sister and her friends, in exchange for you joining Magma."
"Jamie!"
Sapphire met sapphire as Jamie gazed at her terrified little sister.
"Two words and she goes free."
"Marsh..." Marshtomp squirted her in the face with a spout of water, bringing Jamie's attention away from her sister and back to the battle. "Marshtomp Mar Marshtomp!" The Pokémon, who had staggered back to his feet, was not demonstrating its strength.
"You want to fight?" Jamie asked, surprised, though the little voice in her head told her she shouldn't be, all her Pokémon were as bloody minded as she was.
"Mar!" Her starter Pokémon nodded.
"You won't win." Ashley warned,
"We'll fight and we'll win." Jamie declared, "Right Tide?"
"Marshtomp!" Tide pounded his chest.
"Houndoom, Fire Blast!"
Tide leapt away, realising too late that it wasn't him the attack was heading for, but his Trainer, firing off a Water Pulse attack to try to defend her...
Steam flooded the room and for a second she thought her Pokémon had actually managed to stop the attack.
Then there was heat and pain and screaming...
'Jamie!' The little voice in her head, the one she often listened to in emergency situations, had suddenly become male and much louder and insistent. 'This is ancient history dragged up by Noa! It's a memory! Snap out of it!'
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"What're you saying Yuge?" Joey was confused. He'd only just broken free of Marik's mind control and now his mind kept throwing up the fact that Yugi was talking like… talking like he didn't expect to get out of this alive.
"I'm saying I've decided to save you, Joey." Yugi explained.
"I can't let you do this, Yuge!" Joey protested. He couldn't let Yugi die to save him! He couldn't!
"It's my decision," Yugi's voice wavered, exhaustion and pain obvious from his tone, but no fear, not anymore, not even with full knowledge of what he was about to do. "So now..."
"No Yugi!" Joey shook his head, cursing that he'd let Marik grab him, that he'd let Marik brain wash him into hurting Yugi as badly as he had, cursing that there was nothing he could do to stop what was about to happen.
"Take care of my Puzzle." Yugi's smile was peaceful. He'd accepted his fate, he'd done what he'd been trying to do, and he trusted that Joey could protect the Puzzle after... "Now, Ref Panel, direct the attack towards me!"
"NO!" Joey bellowed as the Meteor of Destruction struck Yugi, who cried out as the flames struck, the smoke obscuring Yugi for a moment or two, then his friend could be seen all too plainly as Yugi fell, either unconscious already or nearly there, at the same time as Joey's key box opened.
"Please." Yugi managed to raise his head but his voice was weak, so much so that Joey had to strain to hear him. "You have thirty seconds to free yourself. Then the anchor falls."
"No..." Joey shook his head, still trying to think, "Don't give up, Yugi, I'll think of something." He pleaded when Yugi's last act, before he slipped into the painless black of unconsciousness, was to remove his Duel Disk. Then the idea hit him like a ton of bricks. Meteor of Destruction's other effect... "Red Eyes, attack me directly!" Joey ordered.
His dragon answered his desperate plea, blasting him with an incredibly watered down version of his Inferno Fire Blast, knocking his life points down to zero, opening Yugi's key box.
Leaving behind his Duel Disk, the Puzzle and his key, he swung across, horribly aware of the timer counting down until the charge inside blew and both he and Yugi were dragged under without their keys…
"Got it!" Joey was triumphant as he grabbed the key for Yugi's cuff, but the feeling lasted only a few seconds, then the bomb blew, the anchor fell and both he and Yugi were pulled under.
The coldness of the water hit him hard and though he nearly dropped the key in his shock, it knocked the last of the fuzziness left by Marik's control out of his head.
He had to…
Wait…
The last thing he clearly remembered was passing through that portal that was supposed to lead back to reality.
A memory flashed past. Yugi saying Noa could tap into their memories…
Was this just…
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"Go, I'll hold them off!" Tristan demanded, looking at Duke and Serenity as they fled from the Rare Hunters.
"But…" Duke hesitated, looking back over his shoulder, only to see their enemies catching up.
"What about you?" Serenity squeaked.
"Just go!"
The three turned around at the sounds of something heavy landing. "Jamie?" Tristan asked, as the Trainer in question dismounted, gave the three a quick grin, and turned to the creeps, giving them her best death glare. "Hi guys. I can handle this."
"Where's Tea and Yugi?"
"I don't know, Tristan. Yugi got Kaiba to track Joey, but I was midair, searching for you lot, before I could hear where he and Tea are."
"Step aside, we're not afraid of any holograms." One of the Rare Hunters snorted.
Jamie snorted, "Marik obviously didn't tell you about me. Iblis is no hologram."
"Jamie?" Serenity's voice sounded uncertain.
"It's me, don't worry about your brother, Yugi'll find him. Trust me, he'll be fine." Jamie looked over her shoulder at the two boys, "Get her out of here."
The black haired male went to run for it, then something occurred to him.
"Why are you a monkey?" He demanded of Tristan.
The idea hit the three of them simultaneously. "The virtual world!"
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Seto turned away from Yugi's battle with Slifer. He'd been the one who had gotten Yugi's head back into the game when this had happened for real, but he wasn't going to play into one of Noa's illusions, if Yugi couldn't snap himself out of it, it was his problem.
Seto had far more important things to do, like find his brother.
And since this was a virtual representation of Domino, he was certain he knew where that creep Gozabora would be…
Kaiba Corp.
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When the realisation that this was just a memory hit one, it hit all of them simultaneously.
The memories vanished and they were left in Domino Central Park.
'That's it!' Bakura snarled as Jamie took a deep breath and tried to think things through clearly, 'I'm going to find Noa and I'm going to rip him limb from limb.'
"I think you might have to join the queue." Jamie watched Joey and Duke rant.
'I have first rights on any vengeance.' Bakura growled.
"Then come out here and tell them that." Jamie chuckled, making Joey and Duke wheel on her.
"What's so funny?"
"Bakura says he has first dibs on Noa." Jamie chuckled.
"Can he even Shadow Game anyone…" Joey was cut off when Yugi shoved him to one side, causing the blade, which was wielded by one of the Skull Knights who had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, to miss Joey.
Yugi would have been hit instead, if Yami hadn't appeared behind him and pulled him out of the way, before summoning Black Luster Soldier, who easily took down the Skull Knights.
Yugi retreated into his soul room.
Fuelled by anger and inspired by Yami's summoning of his knight, Joey called on his Red Eyes Black Dragon, who blasted another set of monsters to kingdom come, while Jamie, midnight blue eyes flashing, called her Third Eye Fox.
They fled through the streets, avoiding staying in one place too long in order to avoid being swamped by Duel Monsters. Red Eyes and Third Eye Fox at their back, Black Luster Solider clearing the path in front of them.
"Attention, can all of you hear me! This is extremely important!"
They froze, costing Jamie her fox as a Skull Knight, who had just fifty more attack points then the Light Beast/Effect monster, took it down before Black Luster Solider could get to it.
"Noa!" Joey snarled.
"Get down here!" Jamie growled.
"This is a warning to all of you! The virtual world you're in is about to be destroyed!"
"That little…" Jamie's hands balled into fists, "He couldn't beat us, so he's gunna kill us?"
"I'll kill him first!" Bakura was out and furious.
"You'd better let us out of here, Noa!" Tea snapped.
"I'm sorry for what I have done, but a satellite will destroy the ship, taking the main computer with it! If it's destroyed the virtual world goes with it! Your minds will be gone forever!"
"Arceus!" Jamie swore. If the ship was destroyed it wasn't only their minds that would be gone. Their bodies would be too.
"Listen, I can help!" Noa pleaded, "The only exit is at the Domino Arcade. Hurry, time is running out!"
"Can we trust him?" Tea asked fearfully.
"Trust Noa? No way." Joey shook his head.
"We," Tristan made a monkey noise, "No choice, Joey."
"I hate to say it," Bakura growled to Jamie, "But the monkey has a point."
"Let's go." Yami nodded.
Bakura disappeared and they ran for the arcade.
"Guys!" Serenity squeaked.
The monsters were catching up again.
"Jamie, guard them, get them out safe." Joey nodded to Tea and Serenity. "We'll be right behind you."
"I'm not going without you Joey." Serenity protested.
"Just go, sis." Joey said, not taking his eyes off of the monsters.
"Come on Serenity. The boys can handle themselves." Jamie summoned one of her Cloud Foxes as Serenity picked up Tristan, nodded to Joey and led Tea, Serenity and Duke down the street. They were only a block away now. They'd make it and she had faith Joey would get there safely too.
They reached the arcade and Jamie covered the entrance while the others started the upload to the real world, using the huge dance stage.
"Jamie!" Joey darted in the door.
"Serenity's gone. Tea and Tristan too."
"You and Duke go next, we'll be right behind you." Yami gestured.
"Alright." The pair of them took the stage.
And woke up in the real world.
Brown eyes, instead of sapphire focused on the child sat in the seat at the desk. "Noa!"
Joey, who had just woken up and only just avoided hitting himself in the face with the glass, saw Yugi was still out and had time to swear and get between the kid and 'Jamie' before a rather pissed off Tomb Robber got out of the pod and started stalking towards the kid, as Bakura checked Jamie's Pokémon were ok before he turned towards the subject of his ire. "Bakura don't." Joey growled. "We still need him."
"Get out of my way."
"I understand why you're so pissed off, but we don't have time for this. Unless you want Jamie to die because you had to challenge Noa?"
"You should go." Noa, who was still in Mokuba's body, warned them.
"You'd better bring Yugi back safely." Joey snarled at Noa.
"I will."
They ran for it, reaching the blimp as the engines started.
"Come on, Yuge…" Joey hovered by the entrance.
"There they are!" Tristan sounded relieved as he saw Seto, Mokuba and Yugi running towards the blimp as the blimp started lifting off.
Tristan caught Mokuba, who was thrown at them by Seto, the CEO leapt on and Joey managed to pull Yugi onto the blimp, only by dint of hanging practically off of the ledge.
"Go. Go! GO!" Tea screeched.
The blimp shot off as fast as it could, but it wasn't going to get away…
Kaiba raced towards the bridge.
A few seconds later, the balloon part of the blimp disappeared and the huge shuttle like ship gained speed, breaking free of the explosion.
"We made it!" Joey cheered as they left the huge ball of fire behind.
"So now what?" Tristan asked.
"Mai!" Jamie squeaked, sapphire blue eyes showing her panic.
She raced for the infirmary, Joey on her tail, and though they caught a glimpse of Marik, it appeared that Haunter, who was still hovering outside the door, had kept the psychopath at bay as the Doctor reported that no one had disturbed them and there had been no change.
Both good news and bad…
Haunter, instead of going off and winding up Marik like Jamie had assumed he would, instead stuck close to Jamie, making her worry about what Marik had tried while she had been gone.
"Are you alright?" She asked the Gas Pokémon, who nodded. "Go have fun." She would have pushed him, had he not been a ghost. "You've earned it."
"We've all earned a vacation." Joey growled, "But I'm going to beat Marik and get Mai back before I go on mine."
Jamie nodded.
Thinking of vacations, that reminded her. She needed to talk to Kaiba.
It looked like her break was over…
LINE-RECOGNITION-HAS-GONE-AGAIN
Mokuba's PC which was hooked up to the Kaiba Corp mainframe had been left on when he'd left the office quickly to deal with problems during Battle City, but it would be months before something crashed badly enough for Mokuba to need to look through the backup files to see if he had a file with all the changes in.
As such it would be months before he would notice a file called virtnoa.bac