THE SHADOW LEGACY
Challenge of the Darkness
Duelist Academy: an isolated island, far from civilization. Home to the premier boarding school for Duel Monsters, the card game that had held the world in its grasp for a generation. Now, though, in the midst of one great threat to the school and the world, a threat to one of its top students is also arising, undetected.
"What is it you want," a deep, scratchy voice demanded over the computer link. The camcorder display showed only darkness—the man on the other end of the connection liked his privacy. But, the same was not to be said of the man on the receiving end. Of taller-than-average height, perfect weight, muscular, with a head of close-cropped blond hair, he usually flaunted his appearance.
Right now, though, he just needed to impress this man, to let him work for his cause. It would not be easy, he knew, but he'd get the job done. He had that fire in him, that burning desire. For revenge and for something . . . more.
"Listen, I know about what you and your organization are up to. All I'm asking for is a piece of the action," he said, concluding his demands and now pleading his case. "I don't even want any of your supposed prizes, except the one thing of my choosing."
"And why do you need help from me?" the other man asked sharply.
"Simple. It's because I can't do it without two things: I need some of those shadow powers your men and women seem to have. And, second, I need a reason. I can't just barge in and demand this duel, and expect to get an answer. I'd have to resort to kidnapping and threats that I can't back up."
"I see." The shadowy man mused for a moment. "And you will be content with whatever you get from this duel? You will hand in the Key, and not ask anything in return?"
He nodded. "Of course. I don't want to take more from you than what it takes to get this duel."
The shrouded man considered for a moment. "Yes, I think I can help you. I will be sending a representative—his name is Titan—to meet with you. Although you will have to act fast, since his mission is the same as yours."
The man nodded. "I understand. When and where shall I meet him?"
The shrouded figure laughed. "The Academy's abandoned dorm will do nicely; tomorrow at midnight should do the trick." Then, the shrouded man cut the connection, and the screen went from dark to static.
"I'll be there," he promised quietly.
"Here it is," the bulky crony named Titan drawled. "A Shadow Item. It will create the illusions you need it to."
"Thanks," the man replied icily, taking the thing and slipping it into his pocket. It was nothing more than a locket with an eye inside of it. Well, at least it was discrete. "I mean that, really."
Titan didn't seem to notice—or care about—the sarcasm. "Now, get going. I and the others still have work to do."
"Sure; whatever." I can't wait for the shadows to devour your soul.
And then his contact was gone, simply vanishing into the deep shadows of the abandoned dorm. Maybe his thoughts had come to pass, or else these Shadow Items were a lot more dangerous than he had originally thought.
Then again, you couldn't get great power—or any sort of worthwhile reward—without some sort of risk or danger.
I'll have to keep that in mind when using this, he reflected, rubbing the Shadow Locket between his fingers. Of all the many things it could have been, he ended up with a piece of jewelry. Jewelry!
But, what's done was done. With his contact gone, there was no one to complain to. No matter—it would have to do.
And now, he had a plan to formulate, and a deception to set up.
Alexis Rhodes, the "Queen of Obelisk Blue," looked out at the waves crashing along the shore of Duel Academy. She heaved a sigh, and hugged her arms around her. Twilight was fast becoming full night, and it was getting cold.
A shiver ran through her. Twilight, like her brother Atticus had become trapped in. Her brother had been one of the "missing students" who vanished mysteriously from the now-forbidden dorm. He had been turned into one of those Shadow Riders, those merciless thieves who were trying to take the seven Spirit Keys.
Alexis fingered the key hanging around her neck. They already had three: the ones held by Dr. Crowler, Zane Truesdale, and Bastion Misawa. But, Jaden had managed to stop them, at least for now. Their first emissary had been her brother, possessed by a mask and using half of the Shadow Pendant—the other half had been Jaden's, given to him by the spirit of Gravekeeper's Chief, a Duel Monsters card—to create a deadly Shadow Game.
Then, there was the vampire, joining the Riders to try and make her kind superior. She succumbed to her own inner darkness, dissolved into dust by her own Shadow Item. Then, there was the Amazon woman, who turned out to be a tiger transformed into a human by the power of her Shadow Item.
Another shiver ran along her spine. Something was wrong . . .
And then she heard it: a scream, sounding like Chazz Princeton's rough, haughty voice twisted into a horrible travesty. And it was coming from the abandoned dorm. Alexis took off at a run, one hand grasping the key hanging from her neck. For something to have caused Chazz to scream like that, well, it couldn't have been anything other than one of the Riders. There was nothing in the world that could have made him do that.
Just as she emerged from the forest in front of the condemned dorm, Alexis recoiled as another blood-curdling shriek filled the air. But it hadn't been Chazz again. It had been . . .
"JADEN!" she wailed, hoping someone could hear her. If that scream meant what she knew it did, that left only her and Dr. Banner as the guardians of the keys. But, even for being a teacher at the academy, Banner always struck Alexis as all brain and no backbone. She knew, deep down, that the only reason his key hadn't been turned over to the Riders is because none had bothered to challenge him.
Which meant that, if the terrible fate inside the rotting building turned out to be true, it was just be her, Alexis, standing against it. That thought paralyzed her. Despite all of her natural courage, self-control, and all the other attributes that had lead Chancellor Sheppard to name her one of the guardians, she was scared stiff of standing alone against the darkness.
And then the shaking began. It began along her spine, and spread out all over her body until her teeth were chattering painfully. She bit down on her tongue, hoping the pain would snap her out of it. A short yelp of pain, and the shaking fit was over.
"Get over it, Alexis" she hissed, hugging her arms around her as she moved into the run-down building. The chains with the "No Entry" sign were down; not surprising, as they had been rusting for years now. She navigated her way around a pile of rotten wood that half-blocked the doorway—open, now, as the door had fallen in.
The dorm's common room was pretty much how she remembered it from earlier that year—then again, she had been kidnapped and was being dragged, unconscious on the way in, and had hurried to get out after she'd been rescued.
The stress of the situation must have messed with her head; she began to giggle. The last time she'd been her, she had been the damsel in distress. Jaden had come after her when he heard her scream. This time, the situation was reversed. It wasn't really funny, but Alexis knew she was losing her grip again.
Chewing on her bottom lip to try and maintain focus, she continued into the building. The furniture of the common room—when not rotting or housing rodents—was covered in protective sheets. Cobwebs coated the ceiling and much of the walls. Alexis could just barely make out a chandelier through the tangles of spun silk.
She continued onward, turning right when the common room became a corridor. Further along, the cobwebs descended two-thirds of the way down the walls, creating curtains of silk. She plowed through them, not knowing where she was going. When she came out of the forest of sticky strands, she saw a dust-covered mirror; she cleaned it with the glove on her right hand, and looked to see how much damage had been done. She regretted that decision.
Now, the "queen" of Duel Academy looked like a spider's snack, with strands of web covering her entire upper body. Her long, straight light-brown hair now looked silver and ragged, and her Obelisk Blue uniform was not much better off. With a shake of her head, Alexis continued on, trying to spit cobwebs from her mouth.
Just as she was about to turn another corner, the floor gave out beneath her, and she tumbled down into the basement. Luckily, she managed to land in a crouch, practically sitting on a giant rock that would have made for a painful fall-breaker otherwise. Rising slowly to her feet, and stretching arms out for balance in the dark, Alexis began moving forward once again.
Moments later, after making her way bit by bit down the pitch-black corridor, she came into a cavern lit by a quartet of torches. And, on the far side were Jaden and Chazz, laying unconscious by a deep, formless shadow.
"Jaden? Chazz?" she shouted, running towards them. But, much to her surprise, the shadow detached from the wall and moved to intercept her.
"They cannot her you, ma chère," a gravelly voice said from the shadow. "They are, technically speaking, no longer here—and neither are their keys." This was followed by a laugh that returned the shiver to Alexis's spine.
"What have you done to them?" she demanded, swallowing hard against the lump rising in her throat.
"I've taught them the price of messing with the Shadow Riders. A fair lesson, mind you: I challenged them to a game of greatest desires, and they both failed to handle the pressures of having what they wanted most. So, their minds are now broken, and two more keys await the chance to open the gate between the Sacred Beasts and this world.
"What do you mean, they 'failed to handle the pressure of having what they wanted'?"
The shadow seemed to quiver in humor. "That's really quite simple, my lady. The shadows created the likeness of what they would most rather be if they weren't duelists. Jaden could not handle being a famous actor, while Chazz there couldn't keep up with the trial of political leadership. Now, they pay the price for resisting us.
"Now, then, how about we duel—it would be nice to get the third out finished with now, so the ball game can move onto the next phase, wouldn't it?"
Alexis snarled at him, and the shadow quivered again. "Oh, dear, kitty has claws!" it mocked. She glowered, and reached for the deck strapped to her belt.
"No!" the shadow ordered. "This duel will occur on the landscape of our minds." Alexis raised an eyebrow questioningly, prompting the shadow to continue. "The shadows will take our decks and display them in our minds' eyes; that way, in this type of duel, there is no chance of sneaking a peak at the other player's hand."
What sort of duel is this? she thought, removing the Duel Disk from her left arm and setting it on the ground beside her.
"Let the Shadow Game begin," the creature said—and suddenly Alexis felt the ground beneath her rise, until it became a stage. A single metal pole rose out of the middle of the stage, right next to her.
And, down on the floor, the shadow—she blinked. The shadow had been replaced by a man.
"Yes, this is my true appearance," he said, smiling. He was of average height, with an athletic build and close-cropped black hair. "Much better, isn't it, my sweet? Now, get a look at what your mind has created for us!" As he said this, he placed one hand on the center of his chest.
She did so, and a wave of revulsion heralded the thought that came to mind. This is a strip club!
The man, Nathan, knew when the thought crossed through her mind; he could tell by the disgusted look that came to her face. She'd figured out what this place was, and he tapped the locket hidden underneath his cream-colored shirt.
This was all part of his trap. His Shadow Item had created a place he wanted it to. At the right moment, by touching it, he could use it to read his opponent's mind and pull from it everything they thought of and believed about the surroundings.
And then, probably much to the opponent's chagrin, they would begin to become what they saw and thought of about the place.
He smiled; the "Jaden" and "Chazz" she had seen moments ago hadn't really been them. They were still at their dorms, completely unaware of what was going on. By the time they found out—as this Shadow Game would be very quick, relying on the players' minds instead of hologram generators—it would be too late: the Riders' leader would have his precious key, and he'd have what he desired.
Everything was working out perfectly.
And now, the duel can begin.
Suddenly, Alexis understood what he'd meant by dueling on the landscape of their minds. She could see, as if they were holograms hovering before her, five cards: Étoile Cyber, Doble Passé, Torrential Tribute, Cyber Tutu, and Polymerization. She wanted to reach out and see if she could touch the hovering cards, but decided better of it; she would have to focus on this duel as hard as she could. Regardless of what cruel tricks the shadows played on her.
"Now, I guess it would be best to let the lady go first," the Shadow Rider said, smirking.
Alexis swallowed. "I summon Étoile Cyber in attack mode, and set one card face-down." When he attacks my monster, my Doble Passé card will make it a direct attack on my Life Points. And, then my Cyber's effect kicks in.
The two cards vanished; the monster appeared further away in attack position, and the trap set itself face-down. It was disconcerting, this way of playing. It was hurting her brain.
"Now, my turn." The man drew. "I assume that you want me to trigger that trap card, allowing your monster to hurt me? It won't work, though, at least not right now. First, I'll activate Lockdown. This card prevents me from summoning this turn—but it also lets me force both of us to keep optional cards active.
"Next, I'll set these three cards face-down, and activate Exchange. Now, show me that beautiful hand, sweet," he said, as his only card flew up to meet her—it was a Fiend's Sanctuary card. He took the Torrential Tribute she hadn't wanted to risk setting.
"Now, I'll activate Hand Control, forcing you to activate a Spell Card in your hand, if I guess its name. I assume you have a Fiend's Sanctuary in your hand—so I would recommend playing that one." He smirked.
"I'll do it," she glowered. Fiend's Sanctuary created a Metal Fiend Token, a creature that reflected damage it takes back at the opponent. But, to keep it on the field, the owner had to give up 1000 Life Points at the start of her turn. And, because of Lockdown, it was no longer an option to just let the thing destroy itself. "I activate Fiend's Sanctuary, and summon Metal Fiend Token to the field."
When normally played by a Duel Disk, a hologram of the card would appear with a brief summoning animation. Instead, though, the cross-shaped links of silver balls simply appeared on the "field" of her mind's eye.
"I'll continue my turn with Nightmare's Steelcage. It'll keep us from attacking for the next few turns. And, that's all I can do."
Alexis's mind drew a card. It was Allegro Tool—and, by combining it with the Cyber Tutu in her hand, she could take out the cage and attack directly for a lot of damage. But, first, the Metal Fiend Token would have to exact its price from her Life Points . . .
"Before you enter the Standby Phase, I'll activate the Trap Card called Ojama Trio, creating a band of merry Speedo-wearing freaks for your enjoyment."
Alexis wanted to die upon seeing the three Ojama Tokens: the thin yellow one with eyestalks, the round green one, and the statue-like purple one with snot dripping from its nose. Chazz may like those cards, but she certainly didn't.
But, now was not the time for that. Now was time for seeing just what penalty this Shadow Game would exact from her as the Metal Fiend Token sapped her strength. "Okay, I enter my Standby Phase."
The man laughed. "Good—now it's time to see what happens to you as your wish becomes closer to reality!"
"What are you talking about?" she said.
"I told you already: my Shadow Item creates a penalty where my opponent suffers through what they would be if they weren't a duelist. My Shadow Item saw into your mind, and discovered that this is the place you would be in if you could be. And now we will find out more of this dream-life of yours as my token steals your Life Points!"
Alexis stared at him in horror, and suddenly she felt a change inside her. Something was wrong; terribly, terribly wrong.
What had she just gotten herself into?
TO BE CONTINUED