Chapter 3 – Into the Lion's Den

The Collector drew, and a crooked smile reached his lips. Holding the card idly in his hand, the man laugh mirthlessly and the smile became a demented grin. "Monsters? Ahaha…Monsters? They're gods, girl!" he slapped the card onto the field, "Realm of the Almighty! Show true darkness and power!" Gwen gasped in surprise as the ground shifted and crumbled, the fires of hell carving a pattern into the floor as pure while flames simmered underneath and barely lit the dim, cracked walls that had surrounded him. Smoke rose from the corners and seeped around them, forming grotesque web-like pillars. The Collector smirked as the walls disappeared and peering eyes glinted at them.

"Wh-What is this..?" Gwen screamed as she felt the cool wall behind her try to suck her in, claws reaching for her legs and arms. She tugged out of their grasp and landed on the floor to her knees, shaking. "What the hell?!"

The collector smirked and said nothing, placing a monster on the field. A fire flickered above them, feeble and held by a cage, suspended by two gnarled crooked hands. The flame burst into an inferno and ravaged the field. Gwen covered her face, hiding her eyes from the glaring light. When she moved her arms, the sight meeting her was just as unpleasant. A humanoid dragon stood before her, eyes ablaze and arms wielding two crudely chipped blades. A spiked cloak lay behind its shoulders, and the armor was scaled, almost broken-looking in the pale darkness. "Let the real duel begin…"

The creature roared and took its place next to the Collector's other monsters. "The hell is that thing?"

"Ryu-Kishin Ultima (9/3200/2400)… Allow me to elaborate. You see, we're currently located in a world where power is all that matters—Realm of the Almighty. My Field Spell prevents me from summoning regular monsters, but to make up for it, it allows me to Special Summon amazingly, shocking monsters each turn." Gwen glanced over at the Collector's dueldisk to see his field slot glowing the same color as the flames beneath them.

"Now, Copier Monchine, activate your effect!" The Collector's photographer monster turned to Ryu-Kishin Ultima and set its timer. The gargoyle snarled as a picture was taken. Suddenly appearing on the opposite side of the Collector's field was a colorless copy of the beast. "With Copier Monchine, I can make a copy of a strong monster on my field—a Replica Token (9/3200/2400)."

The Collector clenched his fist and dark wind circled Ryu-Kishin. Suddenly, the creature huddled over and its cape of thorns erected upward, needles pointing in every direction. Thousands shot from its back into the carbon-copy version of itself. The value meter appeared onto the virtual field next to the Replica Token, showing a significant increase in ATK for the monster. (Replica Token – 4200 ATK)

Gwen began to tremble as nervousness quaked through her body. Her gigantic devil was outmatched in attack power, and she only had one line of defense left. "Thank god I drew Mirror Force; else I'd be in trouble right now."

The Collector's pupil shrunk as he flung his arm forward and pointed at Gwen's monster, declaring battle. "Replica Token, destroy her monster! Dual Tail Scythe!" The monster leaped forward. In the midst of its attack, Gwen pressed a button on her dueldisk, activating her middle face-down card. "Mirror Force, activate!"

The Trap Card blasted out a rainbow glistening force against the Collector's assaulting monster and his monsters became sitting ducks in the prism light.

As the force neared the Replica Token, the large, floating eyeball flew in front of its accompanying monster. Its eyelid shot open and the orbs circled around its glowing, white pupil in a circular pattern, shining black. The mirror force crashed into the spheres, absorbed into the monster's big eye. "No! It can't be!"

The Collector cackled insanely as his Replica Token jumped onto Negative Negator's body and launched back towards the monster, landing on the giant devil's shoulders. The gargoyle clenched its chipped scythes tightly into its neck. It spun around, cutting the other side from behind and then crossed the blades over each other, completely decapitating the fiend.

Gwen's lifepoints decreased to 3300 as her monster's lifeless body was pulled into the eager darkness of the wall behind her.

"Negative Negator, attack her directly!" The orbs circled in front of the monster's pupil, shooting multiple beams one after another, similar to a revolving gun. Her lifepoints had been dropped even further to 2300 now. "With that… I end my turn."

Gwen wiped her forehead and nervously drew her next card. "Draw!" She pulled the card over to her face and opened her eyes slowly. Her frown quickly turned into a proud grin. "I activate my face-down Trap Card, Skill Shed! With this card, a monster on the field will lose all of its effects, and I choose Negative Negator!"

Negative Negator suddenly fell to the floor, its orbs broken into pieces as its eye spun dizzily. "Now that he can't protect your monsters anymore, I can do this—I activate Double Chance Death!"

A card appeared, sparkling, onto her side of the field. Its art showed the devil himself condemning a silhouette of a man to the underworld, refusing their second chance. "With this card, I can destroy one monster on the field whose Type, level, and Attribute is the same as another monster's on the field. And I choose to destroy Ryu-Kishin Ultima!"

The creature shrieked in pain as it crumbled to pieces. "But that's not all, next I can Special Summon a copy of a monster in my Graveyard—come forth, Ultimate Obedient Fiend (10/3500/3000)!" The familiar, monstrous hand reached out slowly from the wall behind Gwen, and her minion pulled itself back into the world of the living, biting the demonic hand in spite.

"But now I'll bring, to this duel, my most powerful monster… by halving my lifepoints and Releasing my Ultimate Obedient Fiend, I get to summon Demonservant of Hell (12/4500/4000)!" Upon her declaration, Gwen's monster was enchanted with a demonic power, too powerful even for hell to withhold. Horns sprouted from each side of the demon's head and its teeth grew jagged. Ancient inscriptions lit up all over the demon's body as it grew 2 more arms. "Attack Copier Monchine and finish the duel, Demon Demolition!"

The demon launched its gigantic fist forward, aiming to crush the Collector's puny robot. The robot diverted the attack by blinding Demonservant with its flash. The monster missed and hit Negative Negator, crushing it.

The Collector didn't even as much as blink as lifepoints dropped from the full 4000 to 500. "With my monster's effect, I can also destroy another monster on the field, and I'll destroy your damn Copier Monchine so you can't make anymore copies! Now that I got this duel in the bag, I end my turn."

The Collector's expression remained unchanging. The dim flame above flickered, shadows dancing around him as he slowly drew. "The end is here…" The ground began to quake as a soldier made of pure stone created himself out of the flame's evil magic and the darkness. It carried hundreds of different axes on its back and carried a massive sharp axe in its hands, glinting maliciously.

"Meet Axe Crusher (9/2700/2200)…" The Collector's new monster exchanged glances with the colorless copy of Ryu-Kishin Ultima. "Axe Crusher, cut Gwen's monster down to size!" Suddenly four stone arms shot out of the ground beneath Demonservant. They restrained the monster by its arms and feet, so it was unable to move. Axe Crusher stomped leisurely towards the monster, holding its axe over its head.

It collapsed the axe down into the demon's head, cutting into its skull until the axe was embedded. The wounded area began to glow and the demon turned to stone, its attack dropping to half of what it originally was—2250. The axe cracked the demon in half and Gwen's lifepoints dropped to 1850. "Replica Token, finish this duel and attack directly!"

"Myrna! Get back here!" the well-dressed woman called out to red-haired teen, the exhaust of the D-Wheel uncaring to anything but the driver, and she sped off with a line of lights behind her. The woman sighed and clung to the step railing as she watched her daughter disappear.

"Johanna…" A firm hand lay on her shoulder, squeezing it tightly. "Why did you unlock her D-Wheel? I told you to stay out of this."

Johanna gazed at the ground solemnly. "I thought she'd understand. I'm sorry Dorian."

The lights were calming at night, blazing alone yet brilliant against the sky. They streaked past her duel bike like ghosts as she sped across the downtown streets. "I'm free." Myrna smiled and closed her eyes, snapping them open and taking a sharp turn to a main road. At the last second, someone darted across the narrow path, narrowly avoiding death with a kick from her heel, falling face first into the sidewalk. She grimaced, leaning back further into her seat. Another story of the Silver Maiden. Her, unfortunately; she was pretty well known in slums. Frequenting it often to let off steam, her one-wheeled bike was pretty much the first one to race in of its type. She guessed the 'Maiden' portion of the nickname was from one of the punks she beat in a duel for trying to jack her D-Wheel a while back.

She rounded another corner, pausing at an industrial shortcut that led to the bars and power stations of the area. She needed to get some more energy in her fuel cells or else she'd have to walk it there, which was last on her list. But the street was rather strange tonight. The machines weren't running and the lights were off. "Maybe they laid some people off. I can't blame them…" Myrna sighed and revved her engine back up to speed, maneuvering though the cracked walkway and onto the other side of the factory. Looking around warily, she spotted something familiar and smirked. A field card on the balcony, smoky black box and all. "A duel eh? I might as well watch while they give me the chance. I've been itching for a match." The woman leaned her bike onto the wall and climbed up a fire escape on the side of the building. With the feeling that the field card wouldn't leave anytime soon, she sat against the railing, savoring the cool breeze.

"No! Impossible! Get away from me!" Myrna jumped to her feet, alert to the scream. Watching the darkness on the balcony fade away, the white seal below the two duelists erupted in flames, shooting high into the sky and burying the horrified cries. "What are they doing?" The ivory fire disappeared before her eyes, the losing duelist unconscious against the ground, smoke rolling off their burnt body. Walking casually to the body, the man bent down and weeded through their deck, not taking one, but all of their cards. Shaking, she couldn't hold it in any longer.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? Only cowards take more than one from a deck!" The gentleman smiled, unsheathing a blade from his cane and turning to her.

"And pray tell, m'lady, what are you going to do about it, duel me?" The carved marking crumbled behind him, taking the other woman with it. He smirked dementedly and jumped into the freshly made hole.

Panic mode set in, and she slid down the ladder to her D-Wheel, activating the engine and riding out the lot. She didn't have much fuel left, so by the time he'd even try, she could reach help. And he did come, on a white crotchrocket just large enough to hold him as he accelerated towards her. "He's fast!" She raced through the streets, tearing through corners, the man not far behind, his mask gleaming in the streetlight. Gritting her teeth, Myrna jerked her D-Wheel to the left, making a split-second u-turn and rode past him, kicking his rear wheel out of alignment. She hissed in pain; the speed of his bike had hit her foot good. "This is my only chance then…" Pedal to the floor, she turned sharp into an open alleyway.

"So serious for only a game. Adieu." In the loosest term of defeat, the Collector smiled and faded into shadow, his one eye glaring through the darkness.

"Shit!" She miscalculated the street's width and skid across the road from the turn, wheel scraping across the pavement and sparks flying off as the engine sputtered. Her D-wheel slipped on a pipe on the ground and flipped to the other side into a wall, velocity banging the woman's head against the siding. Seeing stars, she slowly crawled out of the incapacitated D-Wheel, clutching her head. "I might as well have stayed home, haven't I? Shi--I just know someone's gonna steal this thing…" Her arm was scraped raw from the pavement and her head pounding. "Jesus, I'm just gonna get a mechanic to do it." Rising to her feet and grabbing her purse, she walked down the dark street, hoping to find someone who knew their way around.

It had seemed like forever since she had left her bike. The roads were endless, and she swore that she had been down these places before. The lights were flickering as dawn approached, and she sped up her pace, ending up in alleys and cul-de-sacs. "Why is this place so complicated? I swear to god it isn't that hard to find a main road."

"Because you're on one." A cool tone interjected, making the young woman jump at the corner of the street. "And you've circled the same area for quite some time. What are you, drunk?"

Myrna gave the man a withering glare. He had orange spiked hair much like a lion, and a gear in his earlobe. He also had one arm in a sling, probably from a fight. She sighed. Great, the first person to find her was a smartass. "No, I'm just not from this area. Is that wrong?" Leo stepped towards her, eyeing her calmly as she leaned against the wall casually.

"You the Silver Maiden?" "Damn. Not good."

"What if I am?" her glare intensified, reaching in her pocket for her deck. If he wanted to duel, she could take him. The man smirked, only feet away.

"You look pretty beat up. Bother anyone here?" Her crimson hair covered her face as she lowered her head. Her headache was getting worse; she didn't have time for games.

"Can you just tell me where a mechanic is? I had an accident. I don't want anyone jacking my D--"

"Where is it?" She held her forehead gingerly, looking to the ground.

"I don't know. I didn't pay attention to the streets and got lost…" A cold breeze blew against her arm and she hissed, dropping it from her head to dangle useless from her shoulder.

"Hey Solomon, you still awake?" he kicked the wall behind them, setting off a shrieking alarm in the building. Several shouts and curses could be heard inside. And old man pushed the window open above them.

"I am now! What did you need this late, Leo?! Can't an old man get some slee--"

"Another one." Solomon glanced at him oddly, readjusting his glasses.

"There's no one there…" Leo's face fell, appearing to be in a dumbstruck stupor before blindly fishing his hand past the street corner until he heard a yelp. A couple tugs later she was yanking back weakly.

"Lemme go!"

"Got her. Now you think you can fix her up?" The old man slammed the window shut, the lights in the house flashing on one by one until he opened the door, his huge lenses reflecting the struggle on the street. The girl was trying to get away still it seemed, and Leo was failing miserably at bringing her in. Treatment wouldn't get anywhere if she kept moving like that. Sighing, Solomon reached into his pocket and pulled out a miniature syringe, holding it behind his back.

"Excuse me, Miss." Before she could turn to him, he pushed the needle into her arm, injecting the serum into her blood stream. Seconds later, she fell limp to the ground, dazed eyes slowly closing. "Leo, bring her in. I'll get ready." The young man looked at him, wide-eyed, bending down to pick up the woman.

"I didn't think you'd do that." Solomon grunted, shuffling back up the steps.

"She was the first that got my temper. I'd figure you to do that, but she got there before you." Leo gulped, placing her onto the couch.

"Mostly because I woke you up, right?" The doctor picked up a damp washcloth and some bandages, giving him a glare.

"Don't remind me. Now help me before she wakes up, I want my sleep."

"Mhmng…" Everything was heavy and warm, her eyes barely cracked open. She tried raising her head, but all it did was fall back onto the pillow. She didn't remember closing her eyes, but she did, falling back into peaceful slumber.

"Myrna Kramer…" She opened her eyes again, and nearly had a heart attack. Giant magnified eyes staring down at her, inches from her face. Sitting up to avoid smashing her head against the old man, she regretted it, clutching it in pain and swearing. Gathering composure, she glared at him, holding back a wince.

"Yes?" He turned his head to her, perplexed, showing her identification card.

"This yours?" She twitched slightly, taking the card back and placing it on her lap.

"If it looks like me, I'd think it is. Now why did you attack me last night? I was just fine until you did that."

"Actually, you got banged up pretty bad." The lion-haired man mumbled through a forkful of scrambled eggs, sitting on a nearby chair. "You got a concussion and the whole bit. The name's Leo, by the way. Figured you'd want to know it since you'll be staying here for a couple days." Feeling murderous wasn't half of it for Myrna at this point.

"Days? No. I will be going right now, and I dare you to stop me." She hissed. Leo only yawned, staring at her. The old man gave Leo a disappointed glare.

"Go ahead and try, you won't get far. Like Leo said, you're pretty hurt."

"I will!" Wasting no time, her foot gave out from underneath her, landing face first onto the carpet. Leo snorted behind his toast. Flushed from embarrassment and an aching head, she crawled back into the bed, rubbing her stinging ankle. "Fine. A couple days and that's all."

"What made you crash, anyway? From what I hear, you're a pretty decent rider." Myrna rubbed her forehead and spoke blandly.

"A duel. Not that I was involved, but I saw the guy stealing more than one card from an opponent and got pissed at 'im. Shortly after he chased me with his D-Wheel and I didn't react in time during a turn." Solomon's head shot up, wide-eyed. If he attacked Myrna just down the street, the Collector, as feared, was beginning to attack their town.

"What was the duel like?" Inquired Solomon, placing the food on the bed as the two watched her intently. She gave them a weird look and continued.

"It was mostly a black box because of the field spell, but when the duel was finished, the opponent screamed and a seal underneath them burst into flames--"

"A seal?" Myrna frowned, looking up at them as though violated. "No, an elephant. Why do you guys want to know suddenly? It was just round and curving into loops, that's all."

"Like this?" Leo shoved an indecipherable scribble in her face. Surprised by the lack of personal space, she slapped the paper onto the ground, squinting at it. It looked barely familiar, but it had the essentials somewhat.

"Minus the fact that it was drawn by a two-year old, yeah. Now tell me why the hell you want to know. I don't appreciate being in the dark when I got injured for it." They sighed, the old man walking back to the television.

"Do you watch the news…?"

After some thought, she considered herself lucky and boned at the same time. The good part was that she avoided a potentially fatal serial duelist, but the other fact still remained. She'd have to go home sometime, wherein was the problem. Going back was the equivalent of getting a second concussion, but that was the only place she could go. Last time she tried running away her father called the police. As punishment he let them leave a mark and she stayed behind bars a week. Luckily he had reached a monetary agreement with them and it was tucked away on her stomach instead of her face. What father didn't know was that she tattooed an extension on it so that it couldn't be immediately identified. Well, if they were idiots. Many police had Mark Radar on hand. But she really didn't do anything illegal, so there was no real worry.

The only other issue was--

"Eat. You haven't all day." Them. While she was plenty hungry, the fact that both of them were incompetent cooks, mostly Leo, had firmly cemented in a permanent law: the food is poisoned. And since they wouldn't let her in the kitchen, probably fearing the combination of her and kitchen knives, she was going to play their game well. She turned away from the concoction of charcoal and death, looking at the wall.

"No thanks." Leo groaned, dragging his hand down his face.

"Come onnnnnn…Solomon's gonna kill me if you don't eat something."

"That's your problem--Mpth!" Acting quickly, Leo shoved the eggs down her mouth, making her chew. She swallowed and coughed, seething.

"You ass! I need to breathe on occasion!" The man wasn't amused, pointing to the plate he put on her lap.

"Eat it or I won't fix your duel bike. I mean it."

"Blehg. If I die I blame you." She sulked, slowly eating the overcooked eggs and toast. Leo smirked, patting her on the head mockingly.

He walked closer and pulled up a chair, sitting in it, leaning against the side of the bed, "Now… let's talk more about what you saw…"

Next Chapter:
Collector Attacks! A Roaring Duel!

Card of the Chapter

Realm of the Almighty
Field Spell Card
If you control a level 7 or higher monster(s) on your side of the field, this card cannot be destroyed by card effects. While this card is face-up on the field, you cannot Normal Summon, Set, Special Summon or Flip-Summon level 4 or less monsters. When this card leaves the field, halve your lifepoints. Once per turn, during your Main Phase, you can Special Summon 1 level 7 or higher monster from your hand, deck, Graveyard or Extra Deck, ignoring any and all summoning requirements. During a turn in which a monster is Special Summoned by this card effect, that monster cannot declare an attack.