Chapter 2: Contract With the Abyss
Author's Notes: R&R Damn You :)
"Wake up, wake up, come on, WAKE UP DAMN YOU!"
Tom snapped to attention at the sound of the female voice calling to him, sounding rather cross, and strangely familiar.
"Victoria?" Tom mumbled, forcing his eyes to open.
The face that greeted him was most definitely not Victoria. He was also greeted by the familiar face by a slap in the face.
"Don't you ever confuse me with that stuck up, no good, worthless," she paused, and collected herself, "I'm Magician's Valkyria, as you probably know, and I'm your Duel Spirit!"
"Ahhhh! My card came to life!" Tom screamed, quickly backing away from the armored magician in front of him.
"Oh quit it, you big baby!" Victoria sighed, rolling her eyes.
"What's going on? Where'd she come from? And who is that?" Tom asked, pointing to a figure standing next to Victoria, looking rather amused.
"First question, "What's going on?" the answer to that is simple! The holographic machines in the Mutou League exploded, causing the holographic field to permanently expand thousands of miles across the continent," explained Magician's Valkyria. "Making all Duel Monsters able to be summoned in holographic imagery."
"That didn't feel holographic," Tom muttered, rubbing his cheek.
"Oh, that's because the explosion amplified the "Duel Energy" being produced by the millions of competitors competing at once, making all Duel Monsters as real as any human!" Magician's Valkyria explained with a smile.
"Second question, "Who is she?" That would be your Duel Spirit, Magician's Valkyria," Victoria explained, looking amused by Tom's panic. "A Duel Spirit is the card that is closest to you."
"And finally the third question, "Who am I?" the strange figure continued, adjusting his glasses. "I am non other than Magical Scientist!" he explained, spreading his arms dramatically. "As you've probably guessed, unless you're a complete moron, I am Victoria's duel spirit. This phenomenon is fascinating, isn't it?"
Tom stared wide-eyed at the two figures before him, mouth open in disbelief. Finally, Tom found the words to speak.
"So if what your saying is true, then right now we're in the middle of nowhere, with no food, no water, and Duel Monsters are alive? And just where did you find this out?"
Magician's Valkyria and Victoria pointed to Magical Scientist, who looked very pleased with himself.
Tom took a moment to let this sink in: he was in the middle of nowhere, with no chance of getting home soon, no way to sustain his own life, and best of all, he was stuck with two people who seemed to get all of their information from a scientist who couldn't even grow a full set of hair.
"All right, so what, there are Life Points now or something?" Tom asked, trying to make sense of his situation.
"Actually, there are," Magical Scientist replied, looking even more pleased with himself. "You are given a set amount of life points-"
"And let me guess, when they're depleted we're sent to the Shadow Realm?" Tom asked sarcastically.
"Well, your really not going to like this answer, but in fact, like any other monster, you'd be sent to the graveyard, which means that we could reborn you with a Monster Reborn!" Magical Scientist explained, sounding very excited.
"I'm not gonna turn into a monster, am I?" Tom asked, somewhat afraid of what the answer might be.
"Well theoretically, if we used a card like Monster Reincarnation to return you to our hand, you would be placed in a card temporarily until you were summoned. I'm not a hundred percent sure, its something I'll have to look into," he replied, rubbing his hands together eagerly. "Now, I'd like to run some tests. Test one: can humans be equipped with equip cards? Now, if you'd be so kind as to-"
"Not now, Magical Scientist, we've got bigger problems!" Magician's Valkyria interrupted, aiming her staff at a large shape rising from the sand.
As the sand and dust cleared away, two monsters were now eyeing the group, looking very hungry.
"Oh great," Victoria groaned. "Its Worm Drake!"
"Oh Magician's Valkyria, you have 1600 attack, you'll do fine!" Magical Scientist laughed, taking a step backwards.
"Hey, there are two of them you know!" she retaliated angrily. "Besides, it's not like the trading card game where they cant attack me without dieing!"
"Oh you'll do fine! Much better if I'm not there to distract you!" he replied, still backing away from the pair of monsters who were eyeing him hungrily.
"Looks like we'll have to take care of this ourselves, Magician's Valkyria," Tom sighed, as Magical Scientist retreated behind Victoria. "All right!" Tom instinctively drew a card from his deck. "I summon Dark Crusader in attack mode!" A tall human looking monster appeared on the field, the only thing differentiating him from a normal person was the skull that was in place of his head.
The first Worm Drake lunged, striking out with its tail at Magician's Valkyria while the other weaved back and forth, looking for an opening to attack Dark Crusader. Magician's Valkyria struck the worm hard on the head with her staff, causing the creature to stumble backwards in pain.
"Finnish him off, Magician's Valkyria! Attack!" Tom commanded, beginning to get the hang of it.
Her staff began to glow with an eerie green light, the power swirling around it like a whirlpool. Leaping high into the air, she let loose a blast from her staff, blowing the Worm Drake to bits.
On the other side of the battlefield, the second Worm Drake quickly lunged at Dark Crusader, sending sand and dust high into the air in a vicious cyclone. When the dust and sand cleared, only the Worm Drake was visible and it seemed as though it had swallowed Dark Crusader whole. The worm didn't move and they heard a heavy grunting and the head of the Worm Drake lifted up to reveal Dark Crusader, sword shoved deep into the head of its opponent.
"And that takes care of that!" Dark Crusader laughed in a ruff but warm, and not at all cold, voice. He turned to Tom, and bowed his head. "I am forever at your service. Call on me anytime!" And with that, he returned once more to card form, the card flying back into Tom's deck.
"Oh ya uh huh, we kicked but we kicked but, we cool we cool!" Tom cheered while doing a little dance in the sand, troubles momentarily forgotten. "So what do we do now?" Tom asked, dance coming to an end.
"Well I vote that we find civilization and go from there," Magical scientist stated. " How about you?"
"I'd agree with that," Victoria said, not really caring where they went as long as they had somewhere where she could find a real bed.
"Well now I guess that it is settled then we are going to wander around until we find civilization!" Magicians Valkyria said enthusiastically.
"I say that we go that way it looks like there is something over there, I think it is smoke and that means fire, and fire means civilization!" Tom exclaimed.
All heads turned to the distant black smoke and stared for a minute realizing that the smoke was the only sign of humans that they had seen since they got there.
They all started to walk in the general direction for what seemed to Tom like hours, finally as they neared the smoke night was beginning to fall and they could just make out the shape of what appeared to be a city.
As they grew nearer they heard a strange voice sounding almost like three in one
"Stop! Who goes there?" the voice questioned.
"We just came to find shelter!" Victoria explained
"Just shelter eh? Why should we believe you?" the voice asked.
"Please just help us," Victoria pleaded.
"Request denied," the voice replied, and at that a monster jumped out of the bushes and lunged at them claws at the ready.
"Ah crap it's Three Headed Geedo," Victoria explained. She then drew a card and summoned Cyber Dragon in attack mode.
"Go Magicians Valkyria help them out!" Tom commanded. As Magicians Valkyria floated in the air, she was then tackled to the ground by what looked to be some kind of purple human with a weird mask on it's face. She heaved the being off of her and looked closely and recognized Mystic Clown.
"You'll pay for that!" Magicians Valkyria seethed.
As the battle neared the end Cyber Dragon had finally pinned down Geedo and Valkyria had her staff pinned down on Mystic Clowns throat when a voice interrupted them.
"Now, now, is that any way to treat our new guests?"
Quickly, both the attacking monsters moved away from their targets and bowed their heads respectfully to a figure cloaked in darkness.
"Uhh…sorry boss. We just…you said not to let any more people in," Three Headed Geedo nervously explained.
"Now cant you tell that this is a special case?" the figure in darkness scolded. "Now I must apologize for my underlings rude welcoming of you to our fine city."
"Well who are you?" Victoria asked, eyeing the figure warily.
"Me? I am Witty Phantom," the figure replied, stepping out of the shadows to reveal an almost human looking monster dressed in fine clothes. He tipped his hat to them and motioned for them to come past the gates. "You may stay at our finest hotel, reserved only for VIPs."
"How can we trust you?" Magician's Valkyria asked, hand on her staff.
"Because if you don't, you can stay out here in the cold, cruel wasteland," Witty Phantom replied, making his way towards the gate.
Tom and his friends exchanged glances and after a moment's hesitation, followed after him.
Witty Phantom, looking back, checking to see if they were following him, smiled and headed through the gate.
Inside was a multitude of buildings, varying drastically in size and design, the biggest of which being the courthouse in the center of the city.
"You will be staying here," Witty Phantom explained, motioning towards a large building that looked like a run down hotel.
"We're staying there?" Victoria asked, a disgusted look on her face.
"Well, that is our finest establishment, unless you'd rather stay at some of our more…common facilities?"
"No, no, no I think that this will do nicely!" Magical Scientist covered, afraid of what the other hotels looked like.
"Good then you should go in and talk to Witch of the Black Forest she'll fix you up with some nice rooms as long as you tell her that Witty sent you. Oh and please stop by the courthouse in the morning!" With that he turned around and stalked off to the building blending in with the shadows as he went.
"I guess that we don't have a choice now," Victoria complained, not at all satisfied with their living space.
"Maybe it's better inside than out," Tom said hopefully.
"I seriously doubt it," she retorted.
After the talk with the receptionist they were both set up with their own rooms and given their keys. Tom sat in his room staring at the semi-clean sheets and stained pillow wishing that he were back in his own room with his own bed, but sadly he knew that was not the case. Soon he could stay awake no longer and he slowly drifted into an uneasy sleep, dreams beginning to unravel themselves and take hold.
The next morning…
Tom awoke with an uneasy start trying to remember what he had dreamed. Pain? Darkness? And a dark figure spreading shadows across the world? Tom shook his head. No, he couldn't remember what he dreamed, but whatever it was it was probably best he didn't remember. He quickly got up and headed to the door turning around he saw Magicians Valkyria sleeping on the sofa in front of the TV. Of course she was still asleep she had stayed up to watch Godzilla and must have fallen asleep with the TV On.
He walked over to her and shook her gently by the arm. She woke with a start staff aimed directly at Tom's face, energy already forming around it.
"Whoa! Calm down it's just me," Tom yelled trying not to get blasted.
"Oh woops that could have ended badly, sorry I guess it's a reflex," she said face turning red with embarrassment.
"Ok, well I am going to go wait in the lobby come down when your ready," Tom said, thankful that she came to her senses before he got his head blasted off.
Tom hurried downstairs to find Victoria and her duel spirit waiting for him. They talked briefly but to their surprise Magicians Valkyria was down very quickly and looked almost the exact same as yesterday.
"That was fast!" Victoria mused.
"Yeah, magic can really speed up your mornings!" Valkyria laughed.
The four headed out of the hotel and toward the courthouse. Upon arrival they saw that the buildings interior had been painted black and it also looked much cleaner than the hotel they had stayed the night at before.
"Well that lying sack of dirt he said our hotel was the cleanest establishment there was!" Victoria complained.
"No, I said that it was one of them I didn't say it was the best!" Witty said giving them an evil grin.
"Well I didn't appreciate the stains on my pillows!" Victoria said
Angrily.
Witty phantom gave no reply and instead motioned for them to follow him up the stairs to the private offices.
"Alright, I have called you here for a reason," Witty smiled as he sat down at his large, important looking desk. "We are currently having issues, which we think you may be of some assistance. We are, as you humans say, at war, and we are at a threat level of Death Con-2-"
"What, is he in a James Bond movie?" Magician's Valkyria asked, trying not to laugh.
"I think you mean World War II movie," Tom corrected. "James Bond wasn't even around back then."
"I knew that!" Magician's Valkyria snapped, face turning red with embarrassment.
"As I was saying," Witty Phantom continued, not very happy at being interrupted, "I would like you to go to our enemies stronghold and negotiate a peace treaty for us. You will be rewarded handsomely for your actions if negotiations go well."
"I'm sorry, but we have better things to do than hang around and try to negotiate peace between you and your so called "enemies," Victoria said, eager to leave.
Two Dark Blade moved swiftly in front of the door, blocking the exit.
"I didn't say that I was giving you a choice, did I?" Witty chuckled, eyes gleaming evilly.
Victoria stared at the phantom angrily, hand reaching for her deck.
"Um…Victoria? I really think we should do what he asks," Magical Scientist said around the blade that was poised at his throat.
"What do you mean…" Victoria began, stopping as she turned and saw the Dark Blade ready to strike her duel spirit down. "Why I outta beat the snot out of you little…" she paused, trying to collect herself, "…fine," she grumbled.
"Good, I thought you'd see things my way," Witty Phantom laughed. "You may leave now."
As they turned to leave the building, Magical Scientist sarcastically mumbled to himself, "Top ten things I'll miss about Shadow City. Number One: A blade to my throat."