Hybrid Chronicles, The
Dracos Imaginos
"Norgi! Norgi, wake up!"
"Don't bother him; he'll awaken of his own accord."
"What do you know, tiger? Maybe he doesn't want to sleep."
"Oh, please wake up, Norgi!" said the first voice.
Nolez was groggy. The last thing he remembered was some tournament he had won. Then he had blacked out. His eyes were full of film, and he heard people speaking in a strange language, the only word of which he recognized being "Norgi," which was a Duel Monster card.
"Mokey-Mokey, you are getting too close." The little block with wings had his face only an inch from Nolez's.
"I'm sorry, Aqua Madoor, but I just can't help it. If Norgi doesn't wake up soon, we'll be caught in a crossfire. He's just got to wake up." Mokey-Mokey had been the first voice.
"He's already awake," said the cynical Amazoness Tiger.
"Norgi, do you hear me?" Mokey-Mokey queried of Nolez.
His eyes were still trying to adjust. As we've noted, he did not understand any word except "Norgi." But he now knew that whoever these three voices were, they mistook him for someone with the same name as Saggi the Dark Clown's foil.
"Me llamo es Nolez!" he blurted out.
"Huh?" asked Mokey-Mokey. "That's not Duelimongese."
"It's Spanish," Aqua Madoor informed the fairy. "But for all I can make out, he's pleading for buttered toast."
"Pan con mantequilla."
"What's that, tiger?"
"'Pan con mantequilla' is Spanish for buttered toast, and therefore that cannot be what Norgi is asking for."
"Hey, you can understand Spanish!" Mokey-Mokey exclaimed, happily.
"Thanks for stating the obvious." Amazoness Tiger said, in an obnoxious way.
"What is he saying?" Mokey-Mokey persisted.
"He's saying that Santa Claus really lives at the South Pole, Rudolph has a blue nose, not red, and Cupid usually wears a tuxedo."
"Cut the jokes, tiger," Aqua Madoor snapped, tired of the facetious wit. "What is he really saying?"
"Do you have to be so stern? All right, all right, I'll tell you. He's saying that his name isn't Norgi, it's Nolez."
"Norgi must be confused," Mokey-Mokey suggested, glancing pitifully at the red-and-orange clown.
There was silence for a moment. Then: "Tiger!" Aqua Madoor said. "Do you know of any means we can use to understand Norgi without you acting as a disinterested translator?"
"Yes. Teach him Duelimongese. All of you will be able to understand each other in about, oh say, five years."
"I'm serious, tiger!"
Nolez was now fully awake, and saw the Asian beast he had only read about in newspapers, and the little cube-shaped fairy, and the strange creature with spiky hair. All he could think was, "Am I dreaming?"
"Put the black pendant around his neck, and he should be able to speak our language, and you to understand his."
Mokey-Mokey fetched the pendant and did what Amazoness Tiger instructed. Nolez shrunk back, and the fairy tried to assure him, "It's all right, my friend. It's all right."
Then Nolez began to glow, with a blinding radiance. It was the power of his new body, combined with his fright. Mokey-Mokey crashed into the wall, and Nolez continued to shine. Amazoness Tiger decided to put the pendant on herself, since the light did not harm her insensitive eyes. Once the necklace was placed on Nolez, the light disappeared.
"Can you understand me, clown?" Aqua Madoor asked.
Nolez was startled that the creature who said this was looking at him. "I'm not a clown!"
"Oh really? But you are Norgi, Saggi's fraternal twin brother."
"No; I'm a human being, a duelist."
"What does that word mean—duelist?" Aqua Madoor wondered.
"It's someone who plays with cards and stuff. You have Life Points, and summon Monsters, activate Spells and Traps, etc. Duel Monsters. It's a very popular game on planet Earth, which is where I'm from."
Mokey-Mokey stared in dazzlement at Nolez. "Cards? Life Points? Spells? Earth? Wow, you must be the best storyteller I've ever met, next to Mysterious Puppeteer! Can you go into further detail?"
"That's enough rapport, Mokey-Mokey," Aqua Madoor said. (Mokey-Mokey was the only one he called by name.) "We don't need any stories. We need the clown to get his memory back."
"Say, what is this place?" Nolez asked, looking around at the odd three-sided room. He was lying on a bed of straw, and there was a large, blue vase twenty feet away. There was a face painted on it, which resembled that of Pot of Generosity.
"This is Dracos Imaginos, clown."
"Dracos Imaginos," Nolez repeated. He knew from Latin class that draco meant "strict, severe." He had an idea that this was a dangerous place. "You keep calling me clown, though where I'm from you would be considered a clown yourself."
"Norgi, you are a clown by nature. I am Aqua Madoor, a wizard of the waters. That fairy over there is Mokey-Mokey, and the other being present is Amazoness Tiger. You are a twin brother of another creature known as Saggi, who is dark, whereas you are light. Does any of this ring a bell?"
"You're talking about Duel Monster cards. Aqua Madoor is known for his high defense, Mokey-Mokey can be one nasty dude, and Amazoness Tiger is a popular card in decks centered around the Amazoness monsters. Saggi and Norgi were monsters I used in my own favorite deck."
"Me a nasty dude? Imagine that, Aqua Madoor!"
"Look, clown. All of these things you are telling us about—planet Earth, cards, duelists—they don't exist. You must've had a deep and pleasant dream. However, I would advise you to stop relating it to us; you are giving the little one ideas." Aqua Madoor paused for a moment. "What are you doing, tiger?"
Amazoness Tiger could not speak. She was carrying a hand mirror in her mouth, to show Nolez what he had become. He jerked it from her, and stared at his reflection in disbelief. "I have become Norgi! What was I doing before I fell unconscious?" he asked himself.
Then the duel with Cecil Kaiba came back to his memory. He remembered Red Eyes White Dragon, and how close he had been to victory. And he recalled the power of the Hybridization card. Cecil wanted his Norgi as a prize for winning…he flipped a coin to decide Nolez' fate…summoned Blazing Impachi, not a hologram, and sent Nolez to his death. He remembered the flames, the flashback of his life before he was forced to hug fire. And he saw Cecil's face filled with glee at Nolez' suffering. "I'll get you for this Kaiba, if it's the last thing I do."
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There was a stack of Between Charybdis and Scylla boxes in the Cards R' Us display window. A poster read "Get your own Hybridization card, and blow your opponent away!"
"I guess father didn't survive long enough to stop them from getting shipped," Cecil said to himself. He had programmed Geido to have a surefire strategy to defeat Mokuba with; he had put three copies of Copycat in the robot's deck. If Mokuba had lost—as he was supposed to—then Geido had sent him to Dracos Imaginos.
To tell the truth, Cecil was very happy that other Hybridization cards were out there. He had no intentions of killing his father; that was the robot's job. But other duelists would be sending their opponents to Dracos Imaginos, and soon he, Cecil, would be able to go through with his plan.
If there were a chance that his father was still alive, then Cecil would have to duel him eventually. But that was still a while in the future; he had other fish to fry.
He entered a small tournament, promising not to use Hybridization till the final match. It was very tempting to use it earlier, especially when one of his opponents used Gravity Bind after Cecil had summoned Kaiser Glider. But he found another way to win.
"And now we arrive at the final match of the Little Ambark Town Tournament. This one is going to be between Ice Baalick and Joshua Hittam. And let the game…begin!"
(Ice Baalick is an anagram of Cecil Kaiba. He used this name so that no one would recognize him.)
4000/4000
"I always let my opponents go first," Joshua said, in a high country voice.
"In that case, I'll activate the Field Spell, The Trophy Ring."
The Trophy Ring
Field Spell
Effect:
Monsters that have the same level cannot destroy each other in
battle.
"Then I'll summon Axe Raider, set a face-down, and end my turn."
"Okay, Ice. It's time for me to thaw you out. I summon Berserk Gorilla!"
A large orange beast appeared on the field. It was enough to intimidate anyone, except Cecil Kaiba.
"Berserk Gorilla, attack Axe Raider!" The monster took his might fists and flung them ferociously at the warrior.
3700/4000
"Now I set my own face-down, and end my turn," Joshua said.
"I sacrifice Axe Raider, in order to summon Kaiser Glider!"
"Oh, a man named Ice is playing with Dragons? How ironic! Well, I'll have to cure you of that! Activate Trap Hole!"
"Nooo!"
A huge void in the ground appeared below Cecil's dragon. Kaiser Glider was magnetically dragged inside, and the tunnel disappeared. Cecil's side of the field was bare of monsters.
"I…end my turn."
"Ah, it looks like the duel's already over. I summon Majestic Mech Ohka in attack mode!"
"That's a six-starred monster!" Cecil said indignantly, as the pink-and-white fairy materialized on Joshua's side of the field. "You can't summon it without sacrificing!"
"Ah, but I can, Mr. Iceman. You see, my Ohka's special ability permits her to be summoned without any tributes, as long as I'm willing to part with her during the End Phase. Pretty nifty effect, wouldn't you say? And now, with no monsters to protect you, you're through! Berserk Gorilla and Majestic Mech Ohka, attack Ice directly!"
A smoke cloud appeared as Joshua's monsters rushed at Cecil, and the audience was disappointed to see the duel end so abruptly.
3700/4000
"What's this? Your Life Points should be zero!"
"And they would be, had I not activated this!" Everyone saw the familiar trap, with a whirlwind of blazing light on its picture.
"Negate Attack! Well, Ice, that was some save you made yourself. However, nothing will protect you from my next move. For now I activate, the one, the only, majestic, Hybridization!"
The look on Cecil's face was one of mingled shock and wonder. His opponent was opening the gate to Dracos Imaginos; this had never happened before. This was going to be a pretty tough fight. And even if he didn't manage to pull off a hybridization himself, if Joshua lost, he would be sent to the other world.
Berserk Gorilla and Majestic Mech Ohka came together as one, unified monster. It had the face of the fairy, with the wings and the pink and white color, but the brawny, burliness of the ape. Its ATK was 2200.
(Berserk Gorilla's ATK 2000 X 0.5 + Majestic Mech Ohka's ATK 2400 X 0.5 2200.)
3700/2500
"That concludes my turn," said Joshua.
"I'll set one Monster face-down. Back to you."
"Berserk Ohka of the Jungle—what a mouthful—attack Ice's face-down card, with Striking Mabjammer!"
The hybrid was swift and stately. He hammered the fists he had inherited from Berserk Gorilla wildly on the horizontal Duel Monster card. There was a flash of blue, and a one-eyed monster aimed an unpleasant beam at Joshua's deck.
"Hiro's Shadow Scout forces you to pick up three cards from your Deck, and discard any Spells among them."
Joshua discarded Swords of Revealing Light and Lightning Vortex, adding a Reinforcements to his Hand.
"Your go."
"Gladly," Cecil said. "And I summon Bewildered Telescoper!"
What appeared on Kaiba's side of the field was a green creature that wore a white Lab coat, peering through a giant telescope. Through the glass of this instrument a Duel Disk could be discerned.
Bewildered Telescoper
LV 4/ Reptile/
EARTH
ATK???? DEF????
Effect: This Monster's ATK and DEF
are equal to the number of cards you have in your hand x 400. This
Monster can attack your opponent's Life Points directly.
"Because my hand contains four cards, my monster has 1600 attack points. Now, Bewildered Telescoper, attack with Destined Target!"
Cecil's monster stood stock-still. But the Duel Disk reflected in its telescope started to catch fire. Then Joshua's own Duel Disk was submerged in searing flames.
3700/0900
"You will pay for that!" Joshua yelled.
"I'll end my turn."
"I thought your name was Ice…but you seem to like fire a lot; first dragons, then a crazy reptilian scientist who literally burns Life Points! But my Hybrid Monster is ready to put you out! Attack that Telescoper!"
3100/0900
"I hope that shows you, Ice! I'll set one face-down and call it a turn"
When his next turn started, Cecil smiled at the card he drew, Blue Eyes White Dragon. In due time, my pet. And I'll use you with care, just as my dead uncle used to do.
"The only thing I've learned is that I need to take my game up a notch! Here's my chance. I play Graceful Charity, drawing three cards and discarding two. And now I activate Circus Magic, and I'll use it to summon Saggi and Norgi from my hand!"
Circus Magic
Normal Spell
When you
activate this card, you may Special Summon up to two Level 4 or lower
Monsters that have the word 'Clown' in their card name.
On the card picture, it showed a red and white striped tent with a couple of Crass Crowns dancing and cavorting around Gagagigo.
Both Saggi and Norgi appeared, though the latter was a little ruffled, with his bedraggled, unkempt hair and bemused expression.
"Nice of you to join us, Nolez," Cecil said, smirking.
Norgi turned round. "Cecil Kaiba! What have you done to me?"
There were whisperings in the crowd. "Come to think of it," said a red-headed busybody. "He does look like Mokuba's son." "Did that Duel Monster just talk?" "Bedlam and confusion!" shouted a white-haired old man.
"Order in the audience!" the referee bellowed. Everyone quieted down. "Good. Now, Mr. Kaiba, I must inform you that according to town rules, you are hereby disqualified. Reason being: you have entered our tournament under an alias, an assumed name, which Little Ambark Town doesn't permit. It's a violation that we cannot overlook. Therefore, I must concede the duel to Mr. Joshua Hittam."
The look of shock on Joshua's face at discovering that his opponent was Cecil Kaiba was not easily wiped away. In fact, he nearly fainted. But when the last words were spoken, he felt his temerity level rise. "Uh…Mr. Referee, sir, may I make a suggestion?"
"Certainly, Mr. Hittam. What is it?"
"That this duel may continue."
"But the rules, sir, clearly state—"
"Yes, I know. But there's a sort of revelation one feels when one finds that he was dueling a Kaiba, when he thought otherwise. And, besides, I know I can win! Look who has the upper hand!"
The referee pulled out his cell phone, and called the Little Ambark Town's Dueling Board. The chief official gave his approval, on one condition.
"Okay, this duel can continue. But, in the event that Mr. Cecil Kaiba triumphs, he will not receive any prizes, trophies, etc., and the result of this tournament will not go down in the city's record books. Do you agree, Mr. Kaiba?"
"Yes."
"Then without further ado, let the duel resume!"
"I sacrifice—" Cecil began.
"Oh no, you don't! Not without me saying another word, first!" Nolez protested, knowing what Kaiba was about to do.
"Very well, then, Nolez. And I'd like to know why you stopped referring to yourself in the third person?"
"Will you stop it with the talking Duel Monster, already?" shouted the white-haired man. "I suspect some ventriloquism."
Nolez ignored Kaiba's question. "Joshua, that is your name, right?"
Cecil's opponent pretended he didn't hear anything, for fear that people would think he was insane, acknowledging a talking Duel Monster.
"That clown is speaking to you, doofus!" the old man bellowed. "Do you hear him, or do I need to loan you my hearing aids?"
The referee was vexed. "Will some get the old man out of this place?"
"Do not, whatever you do, lose this duel. You'll go to Dracos Imaginos, which is a—"
"Nolez! Hush about Dracos Imaginos! I did not summon you so that you could speak of that place!"
"What did you summon me for, Mr. Kaiba? And I must say, being used as a Duel Monster is a pretty frightening experience. You see a lot of things you don't when you're the duelist instead. For instance—"
"I don't want any of your prattle! Now, I sacrifice you and Saggi in order to summon Blue Eyes White Dragon!"
Before Nolez completely vanished from the field, he shouted one last incoherent "Dracos Imaginos!"
"White Lightning!"
Joshua now had no doubt in his mind that his opponent was Cecil Kaiba. But didn't he know what would happen when he destroyed a Hybrid?
3100/0100
"Hah! You have just lost the duel, Kaiba! For here come my two monsters, to attack you directly!" However, only one monster showed up: Berserk Gorilla.
1100/0100
"How can that be?" Joshua wondered. "Both monsters were in my Graveyard when my Hybrid was destroyed, so what could've gone wrong? You should've lost the duel already, Kaiba!"
"No, I shouldn't. For, you see, Majestic Mech Ohka's effect makes it impossible for you to revive it by Hybridization, unless it is destroyed in the same turn that the monster was summoned in the first place. This is because at the end of your turn, you would've had to destroy Ohka anyways, but you saved it by Hybridization. However, Berserk Gorilla has no limitations on his summoning, and therefore was able to show up like normal and attack me directly."
"Wow, you seem to know a lot about Hybridization."
"I know everything there is to know about that card, and how it operates in all situations, up to any cards printed before Between Charybdis and Scylla. And, if you're lucky, you just may get to see me play it."
"Impossible! You don't have enough Life Points to activate it!"
"We shall see. And I believe it was your move?"
"I activate Hinotama, reducing your Life Points by 500! Then I sacrifice Berserk Gorilla in order to summon Puissant Ape!"
0600/0100
Puissant
Ape
LV 8/ Beast/ EARTH
ATK: 2500 DEF: 2000
Effect: If you
sacrifice a Beast-type monster to summon this card, you only have to
tribute one Monster.
Joshua's new monster was seven feet tall, covered in white fur, and with a small tuft of hair on its forehead. It actually appeared to be very clueless; its stupidity would've made Darwin cringe.
"Now I activate Habitat for Bestiality, which will destroy your Trophy Ring card."
Habitat
for Bestiality
Field Spell
Effect: Raise the ATK of all
Beast-type monsters by 500 points.
A tree-house appeared on the field, between the duelists. Blue Eyes' head peered over the accompanying tree at Joshua, and Puissant Ape gazed dumbly at Cecil.
"Puissant Ape, attack Blue Eyes at once!"
"They'll both be destroyed!" Cecil exclaimed.
At first, Joshua's monster was stagnant. But when he had gathered all his force, he trounced on the ground, and wrapped his odious fingers around the dragon's throat, squeezing and squeezing…
Blue Eyes began to counterattack. However, both the dragon and Cecil's spirits were dampened when they heard the dismal word, "Reinforcements!"
Kaiba should've known. Joshua had set that card shortly after Hiro's Shadow Scout had allowed him to draw it. His monster was destroyed.
0100/0100
"Now we are even," Joshua said, with a smirk. "I have a monster with 3000 attack power. You have zero monsters, Spells, or Traps on your side of the field, and one card in your hand. Of course, you're about to draw another. But that won't save you. You're finished, Cecil Kaiba! Make your move!"
Cecil drew his card, and was disappointed. He was probably going to lose this duel after all. Still, there was one hope. "I activate Exchange!"
Joshua's face went purple. "No, anything but that!"
"What have you got to hide?" Kaiba looked at Joshua's hand. "Ah, I see. Well, I'll take this card if you don't mind," selecting a Spirit Monster. "You can have the only card I had in my hand, The Great Dezard. But he's not so great in the current situation."
Joshua grudgingly took Cecil's card, and the latter duelist returned to his side of the field.
"Now I summon Inaba White Rabbit!" A white hare on a vacuum cleaner appeared on the field. "Attack Joshua Directly!"
The rabbit started up the vacuum cleaner and flew around the tree behind Joshua's ape, which tried to swat at it but missed. The vacuum cleaner was rammed hard into Joshua's Duel Disk.
0100/0000
"And I shall claim my prize."
The referee halted Cecil, as he stepped forward. "I'm sorry, Mr. Kaiba, but rules are rules. You cannot receive the Little Ambark Town trophy, on account of your using an alias."
"That's not the prize I was referring to. I'm taking Joshua's Berserk Gorilla."
"This is not Battle City," the referee said, alluding to a tournament that was held in that region by Kaiba's uncle, in which winners took the rarest card from the loser's deck.
Cecil continued to advance toward Joshua. "Stop him!" the referee shouted, at a couple of stout guards eating doughnuts.
"I summon Red Eyes White Dragon!"
The guards laughed. "Oh, look at the little hologram. What's it going to do, blast us?"
Red Eyes White was infuriated, and set a fiery beam in the guards' direction. Both were blown to smithereens; all that remained of them were tiny ashes were they had stood a second before and the piquant smell of coffee cake. A lady in the crowd screamed.
By this time, Cecil had approached Joshua, and was removing Berserk Gorilla from his deck. "And now, for your one-way ticket to Dracos Imaginos."
Joshua was unconscious, but when he heard these words it was as if he had just sat on a pot of boiling water. "What did you say, Kaiba?"
"I summon Norgi the Light Clown!" he said, ignoring Joshua's question.
Nolez was bewildered. Why was he here again?
"Nolez, there is something you are obliged to do. And that is, to send Joshua to Dracos Imaginos."
"And what if I were to…refuse?" he asked, tentatively.
"You can't refuse!"
Nolez felt a dark power take hold of him, and heard himself say a strange incantation. Joshua's hands started to fade, then his legs, then his torso, and as he was yelling "What's happppeninnng?" he vanished in a thin vapour.
Cecil pocketed the Berserk Gorilla, and made a rush to leave the stadium. Nobody stood in his way, as they were afraid of Red Eyes White Dragon.
A helicopter was waiting outside, and Kaiba boarded it, telling the pilot his destination. If Mokuba was still alive, and not in Dracos Imaginos where he was supposed to be, he would regretting seeing his son again. But before he went there, Cecil had one more stop to make, at the firm of Underwood and Raptor.
