Confronting a Guardian
After Seto watched the commercial, he went back to his computer to look at pictures of more Duel Monsters cards. While browsing the pictures he saw one that made him furious, even more furious than the pictures he had seen of Exodia's head and the Multiply card. It was a picture of Guardian Eatos, a rare and powerful card. What made it so powerful was its special ability. Whenever this monster was equipped with Celestial Sword, its attack power increased by the attack points of each monster in the opposing graveyard. And it had 2500 attack points on its own even without the Celestial Sword. The picture reminded him of the phone call he had received on that fateful day.
Flashback
Seto was sitting in his office when his phone rang.
"What is it?" he answered in a way that indicated he really wasn't in the mood to talk to anyone.
"There's a Mr. Wheeler on the line for you, sir," his secretary answered.
"Oh great!" Seto muttered. "Put him through."
"Yes sir."
Then the image on the computer changed from his receptionist to Joey's eye.
"He really took your call?" he overheard Tea say.
"What? He did? Kaiba is that you in there?" Joey said in a very annoying manner with his face really close to the screen.
"It works better when you step back from the Web cam!" yelled Mokuba in frustration.
"Eh? Hey! You're right."
Joey stepped back giving Seto a view of Tea, the Pharaoh, Joey, Tristan, and Duke.
"Make it fast, Wheeler," Seto said impatiently.
"We found some clues about those biker punks."
"What kind of clues?" he asked curiously.
"I'm not givin' them out that easily, Kaiba. But if you give us a lift to Florida, I'll fill ya in on the way."
"So what's it gonna be?" said Tristan.
"Time is runnin' out!" Joey said urgently. "Those creeps defeated Yugi and took his soul!"
"Oh!" everyone else in the background gasped.
Tristan grabbed Joey by the mouth and pulled his head back.
"Way to keep a secret, lame brain!"
Joey countered by smashing Tristan's face.
"Please disregard my last statement, folks," Joey said while waving his hand around.
The look on Seto's face changed. He smashed his hand on his desk.
"Rrrr! YUGI LOST!" Seto breathed deeply. "Yugi gave his Duel Monsters Championship Crown to some nobody? No one deserves that title but me. I don't wanna hear another word. You're a disgrace to the game, Yugi."
Seto slammed the phone back on the receiver and breathed heavily.
End Flashback
Just staring at the monster in the headdress made his blood boil. How could someone other than himself beat Yugi in a game of Duel Monsters? That was supposed to be his honor and no one else's.
Seto walked over to a filing cabinet and angrily kicked it down. The crash from within his office caught Roland's attention who was right in the hallway. Roland opened the door to see if everything was alright.
"Sir is everything alright?" asked Roland.
"Yes, everything is fine," Seto replied embarrassed.
"Do you need help picking up that filing cabinet?"
"No thanks," Seto responded in an attempt to sound cool. "I just need a moment alone."
With that, Roland left the office. Seto breathed heavily and tried to calm himself down. But he couldn't stop brooding over the fact that there was someone else out there who had the talent to defeat Yugi Muto. What bothered him even more was the fact that Rafael could've easily defeated the Pharaoh a second time had he chosen not to surrender the duel.
When Seto went to bed, he had a nightmare. In his nightmare he was on the rooftop of some building at night with stars shining brightly and a few clouds interspersed throughout the sky. He saw the Pharaoh dueling against Rafael inside of the barrier formed by the Seal of Orichalcos. Mokuba, Tea, and Tristan (who was carrying Joey Wheeler's body on his back) were there watching the rematch with him. Everyone in the gang was rooting for the Pharaoh so he wouldn't lose his soul. However, Seto was hoping the Pharaoh would win for a different reason from the rest of the gang.
The Pharaoh better not let this chump defeat him again. I'm the only one who deserves that glory.
"Now I'll use the power of Underworld Circle to bring back my Guardian Grarl (ATK 2500, DEF 1000)." A giant lizard with light brown skin appeared on the field. "Next I'll use my Soul Charge magic card to bring back two monsters from my graveyard." Rafael then revived Guardian Elma (ATK 1300, DEF 1200) and Guardian Kay'est (ATK 1000, DEF 1800). "For every monster I revive using this magic card I lose 500 life points so I still have 200 life points left." Rafael's life points dropped from 1200 to 200.
Wait! That's not how I remember this happening. I could've sworn he revived three monsters to deplete his own life points.
"Now Guardian Grarl, destroy his Big Shield Gardna." Guardian Grarl wound up his fist and punched the Pharaoh's Big Shield Gardna. "On my next turn, you're finished."
The Pharaoh had better come up with a plan to take down his monsters.
"I'll use the power of Underworld Circle to bring back my King's Knight (ATK 1600, DEF 1400) in Defense Mode. Then I'll activate the magic card Pot of Greed. This lets me draw two cards."
The Pharaoh drew his next two cards and smirked when he saw what he had drawn. "I'll set these two cards facedown. That's all I can do."
Those facedown cards had better be able to protect him.
"All right. It's my move. I'll use the power of Underworld Circle to revive my Backup Gardna (ATK 500, DEF 2200). Then I'll switch my Guardian Elma and Guardian Kay'est to Attack Mode. Before I launch my attack, I'll use my Heavy Storm magic card to destroy those facedown cards of yours."
A heavy wind started blowing in the air. The Pharaoh's two facedown cards flipped up. They were revealed to be Mirror Force and the Spellbinding Circle.
"Oh no! Now my King's Knight is vulnerable to an attack!"
"That's right, Pharaoh. Now that your traps are out of the way I can launch my attack. Guardian Grarl, destroy his King's Knight."
Guardian Grarl pumped up his fists again and smashed the Pharaoh's King's Knight.
"Now Guardian Elma, it's your turn. Attack him directly."
Elma attacked the Pharaoh directly reducing his life points to 0. Everyone watching the duel gasped as the Orichalcos closed around Atem.
"Say goodbye to your soul, Pharaoh."
I can't believe the Pharaoh lost to this chump again.
"NOOOOOOOO!" yelled Seto. Seto awoke from his nightmare breathing deeply. He was completely covered in sweat. There was a knock at his door.
"Big brother, are you all right?" asked his little brother Mokuba.
"Yeah! I'm fine," Seto said trying to calm down. "Go back to bed."
"Okay."
Man, I really need to go for a walk around the block.
Seto stepped out in the middle of the night to take a walk. While Seto was walking around the block he became pensive over his dream. What happened in his dream could've easily happened in the rematch if Rafael had chosen not to surrender the duel. Then a thought occurred to him.
It's been a while since I last dueled. If I tried to duel Yugi without practicing first I might not do so well. Well what better way to practice than by dueling the one person who succeeded in defeating Yugi Muto? And Yugi is very familiar with my deck. So why not challenge this duelist for a few new cards?
After Seto returned from his walk, he fell in a deep tranquil sleep. Of course he would have to track down Rafael first, but with his KaibaCorp technology he would be able to do it.
When Seto went to his office the next morning, he immediately called Roland into his office.
"Yes?" asked Roland.
"I called you in because I want to track down anyone who has used this card recently." Seto then turned his computer toward Roland who saw the picture of Guardian Eatos.
"But how will we do that?" he employee inquired.
"KaibaCorp technology is so advanced it can detect whether or not someone has activated a certain card on a duel disk recently. Tell the technicians to get on it right away."
"Yes, sir."
Seto followed Roland to the lab where the computer techs were working.
"All right, everyone. Listen up! Stop what you're doing. I need everyone to try to locate anyone who has activated a Guardian Eatos card recently," Roland told the technicians.
The techs then got to work entering commands into the computers.
Meanwhile inside of a motorcycle shop that was getting ready to close, Rafael was dueling against one of his employees.
"Guardian Eatos, attack his life points directly."
Guardian Eatos brought Rafael's opponent's life points to 0.
"Wow! You are good," his employee answered.
"All right, Dwayne. It's time to close this shop. By the way, you did very well for your first day on the job. Selling two motorcycles in one day is something to be proud of. With your skills, I think our business can do well."
"Thank you, sir," his employee Dwayne answered.
Meanwhile back at the KaibaCorp lab, one of the computers started blinking wildly. "Sir, we've just gotten a signal on one of our computers that detected someone using a Guardian Eatos card at this location." Roland then pointed to a location on the computer.
"Excellent! Tomorrow I want you to drive me by that spot."
The next day Roland drove Seto to the spot. It was a motorcycle shop. Seto walked inside of the motorcycle shop.
"Hello. How can I help you?" asked Rafael, thinking that the man who just entered was there to buy a motorcycle.
Seto recognized the burly man. "Is your name Rafael?"
"Yes. Have you heard about our motorcycles?"
"No, actually. I'm here to duel you."
"To duel me? But why?" Then Rafael recognized the man. "Wait! I know you. You're Seto Kaiba, the former world champ. And you were dueling against Dartz with the Pharaoh."
"Yes, that's me," Seto responded.
"So why do you want to duel me?"
"Because I want to win my world championship status back from Yugi Muto. And I think the best way to get ready is by challenging the one duelist who actually managed to defeat Yugi Muto in a duel. I don't know of anyone who's done that besides you."
"I see."
"So here's how it'll work. If you win the duel, I'll give you these." Seto then held up his three Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards. "But if I win, I'll get to take any three cards from your deck. So how about we duel?"
"No," Rafael replied bluntly. "I never part with my monsters under any circumstances."
"But why?"
"Because these monsters saved my life." Rafael then showed Seto Guardian Grarl, Guardian Eatos, and Guardian Kay'est. "When I was young, I was stranded on an island and did nothing but play Duel Monsters until I returned to civilization. And even though I've never lost a game of Duel Monsters, except when I surrendered to the Pharaoh, I could never risk parting with my monsters."
Seto was about to leave disappointed, but then he got another crazy idea. He walked over to one of the motorcycles and made note of the name of the company that made it. He could see that the company that made the motorcycles Rafael sold was Hi-Bird.
Seto walked back to the limo where Roland was waiting.
"So did he agree to duel you?" asked Roland.
"No, but I think I know how we can make him duel. First we must purchase 51% of the company Hi-Bird."
The next day, Seto used a ridiculous amount of money to buy 51% of Hi-Bird. Of course, Seto, being the affluent man he was, was able to afford it and still have a reasonable amount of money left. Then Seto was about to get Roland to drive him back to the motorcycle shop when he was stopped by his little brother Mokuba.
"Where ya goin', big brother?" he asked.
"I'm going to duel somebody."
"But I thought your duel with Yugi wasn't for a while."
"It's not Yugi I'm about to duel. I need a practice duel so I'm going to duel one of those biker punks that defeated Yugi in a duel when we were dealing with that Orichalcos problem."
"Cool! Can I come?"
"Why not?"
Mokuba got in the limo, and Roland drove both Seto and Mokuba back to the motorcycle shop.
"Stay here, guys," Seto said to both Roland and Mokuba. "I'll come get you all when I'm about to duel."
Seto walked inside of the motorcycle shop.
"It's you again," said Rafael. "I already told you there's nothing you can do to make me risk losing my monsters."
"I'm afraid you're wrong, Rafael," Seto countered. "Are you familiar with the company Hi-Bird?"
"Yes. That's the name of the company that makes our motorcycles."
"Well guess what? I now own 51% of that company. And unless you agree to duel me, I'll make sure that company stops the production of its motorcycles."
"But that would put me out of business."
"Exactly. So what's it gonna be?"
"Fine. I'll duel you to protect my company. And if I win, I get your three Blue-Eyes White Dragon cards."
"Yes, and when you lose I'll get to take any three cards I want from your deck. And I know exactly which cards I need."
Then another person stepped in. It was Dwayne, the other person working at the motorcycle shop.
"Hey boss. What's going on?"
"This punk purchased 51% of the company that makes our motorcycles. And unless I agree to duel him, he'll put us out of business."
"Well I'm not too worried about it, boss. You never lose."
"Well that's gonna change today," said Seto. "Before we begin this duel, I'm going to get a couple of friends of mine to come watch the duel."
Seto then walked back out to the limo to get Mokuba and Roland to come inside the motorcycle shop. Seto and Rafael took their positions.
"Time to duel!" they both yelled.
Author's note: On yugiohwikia it states that during a turn Guardian Eatos can remove up to three monsters from the opponent's graveyard and gain 500 attack points for each monster removed until the end of the turn. This is not how I'm using it. The way I'm using this monster is as follows. It initially has 2500 attack points. When it is equipped with Celestial Sword, the attack points of all monsters in the opponent's graveyard get added to Eatos's attack points. Additionally, for this fan fiction, when Eatos gains attack points in this way, the monsters are staying in the graveyard and not being removed from play. Also Eatos will keep these added attack points as long as those monsters stay in the graveyard instead of just keeping them for one turn. The reason I'm using it this way is because this is the way I understood it to work when I watched Fate of the Pharaoh. I think it will also make the duels more interesting if I use Eatos in this way. So when you're reading a duel that features this monster please note that I did do the research on this card. I'm just choosing to use it in a different way.
