Chapter Six: Good Luck
Over at the abandoned factory, Thirteen was pacing back and forth across a platform near the roof. Below her, Joey, Tristan, and Téa, all of whom had been knocked into unconsciousness, were suspended by a hovering, green-glowing rope over a vat of green-glowing, acidic liquid which Thirteen had conjured up using simply a small puddle of water.
"Where are you, Grey Sparks…don't keep me waiting for too long…" Thirteen said.
Suddenly, a shower of grey sparks soared through a broken window and landed right in front of Thirteen on the platform. The sparks arranged themselves into a human-like shape, and transformed back into Bakura.
"Ah, there you are!" Thirteen grinned. "Ever the faithful hero as usual!" She looked down at the three suspended over the vat. "Shame, though, that those three can't thank you for your bravery at the moment."
Bakura looked down at the three suspended over the vat, then looked back up at her and snarled, "Those three have done nothing to you! Let them go!"
"Hmm, let me think about that for a sec-no," Thirteen replied. "First you have to be able to defeat me in a nice, fair little battle." She grinned nastily. "Or, you could just surrender to me right now and spare them any possible pain they'd get from your loss."
Bakura glared at her. His outline glowed with a grey light, and grey sparks started shooting out of his clenched fists.
"No?" Thirteen shook her head. "From such a hero, such stupidity." Her charm started glowing with a fierce green light. She waved her hand above the suspended rope, and it slowly started lowering down towards the vat. "Now, then, Grey Sparks, let's see if you can take me down in record time!"
Thirteen lifted her hands into the air, and green-glowing claws suddenly snapped out of them. She dashed towards Bakura in a black blur and swiped at his face. Bakura let out a yelp and quickly soared up into the air, barely avoiding getting slashed.
Thirteen looked up at him as he floated on air and shook her head. "Tsk, tsk-you can't beat me by just hovering there forever, Grey Sparks."
Bakura smiled. "You're right, miss. I should do something more, like THIS!" He blasted a grey ray of magic out at her.
Thirteen screamed and back-flipped across the platform as ray after ray fired out at her. Once she reached the end, she zoomed up into the air and, as a black blur, pounced down towards Bakura.
Bakura merely soared away from the platform. Thirteen slammed into it, her claws digging deep into the metal. "Aw, shoot," she yelled out. She struggled for a few moments to pull her claws out, then finally gave up and let them retract back into nothingness. She got to her feet and looked up at Bakura as he hovered above her.
"Impressive, Grey Sparks," Thirteen said, "but I'm still unbeaten, and that rope isn't moving any more slowly." She pointed at the rope, which was lowering itself closer and closer towards the vat of green acid.
Bakura looked in horror at the three moving towards the vat for a moment, then screamed out in rage and fired another large ray of magic at her. Thirteen jumped off of the platform and gently floated down to the ground as the ray blasted a smoking hole into where she had stood.
Thirteen looked around the factory, trying to find something. Finally, she saw a busted conveyor belt a few feet behind her. She raised one arm out towards the belt. The belt glowed green for a moment, then a large part of it ripped itself off of its metal bed and floated over towards her. Thirteen flung the belt up at Bakura and, under her control, it wrapped itself tightly around him.
Bakura struggled to break free, but Thirteen made sure the belt held fast. She made the belt lower itself and its captive down to the ground, then forced it to lay itself down on the floor.
Thirteen walked over to Bakura and, smiling sweetly, sent green-glowing claws out of her hands again. She lowered the claws down and let them hover just an inch above his neck. "Hmm, what a shame," she laughed. "You're about to lose…" Thirteen looked up and saw the three teens were just inches away from the vat. "…and you've failed to save my captives. What a terrible way for a so-called 'hero' to go." She pointed one claw into his neck. "Any last words?"
"Actually, I have two," Bakura replied. He yelled out, "NOW, YUGI!"
Thirteen snapped her head up and saw another shower of sparks, this one blue, soar into the building. Lightning-fast, the sparks transformed back into the Pharaoh. He held up one hand towards Joey, Tristan, and Téa, and the other towards Bakura. A force field snapped the rope and the belt, forming a protective barrier around the captives and letting Bakura soar away from Thirteen. The Pharaoh guided the force field around the other three down onto the ground and snapped it away, letting them land gently.
Slowly, the former captives stirred and sat up. "What de heck happened?" Joey muttered.
"Oh, so there's more of you?" Thirteen glared up at the Pharaoh and Bakura. "Hmmph! Doesn't matter; I could take down two of you almost as easily as one of you!"
"What about five of us? Dat easy enough for ya?"
Thirteen looked behind her and saw that Joey, Tristan, and Téa had stood up. The three of them were glowing with their respective shades of magic, and their hands were shooting out dozens of sparks.
Thirteen stared at them. "What the…how did you…" She looked back and forth at the teens. "This can't be! I would never have luck like this! I'm practically a goddess of luck!" Her black cat charm glowed furiously.
The Pharaoh smiled sweetly. "Well, miss, luck can go either way, you know." He held out one hand to her.
A force field burst up from beneath her choker, and it snapped right off of her neck and onto the ground.
"NO!" she cried out, and she leapt for the choker; before she could reach it, however, a pair of hands grabbed her from behind and yanked her backwards. She struggled to break free, but Tristan's elastic arms held onto her tightly and brought her all the way back to Joey, Tristan, and Téa. Joey then grabbed onto her with muscle-enhanced arms and held her down.
"Awright, den, so how do we defeat you for good?" Joey asked Thirteen.
"Like I'm going to tell you!" Thirteen yelled angrily.
The Pharaoh and Bakura floated down to the ground. The Pharaoh walked over to Thirteen's choker and slowly picked it up. "Hmm…" he said. He turned back to Bakura. "Bakura, do you think that perhaps you could use your special ability to figure out how to defeat her?"
"I…I'm not sure…I haven't figured out yet how to quite control it…"
The Pharaoh held out the choker to him. "You can try," he said. "Focus your energy on this item of hers and see what you could possibly find out about her."
Bakura looked up at him, then back at the choker. He slowly took it into his hands and shut his eyes. "Please…tell me what you know…" he murmured to himself.
He stood there for a few more moments. Suddenly, he put one hand to his head and cringed a little. "Aah…aah…" he breathed out.
Finally, he lowered his hand and opened his eyes. He looked up at Thirteen. "This charm on your choker…you granted it power with a ritual you found in a spell book, and in order for the ritual to work…you had to place your life energy inside of the charm…"
Bakura looked back down at the choker. "So, in order to defeat you, we have to…"
He threw the choker down onto the ground and fired a grey ray of magic at it. A small crack formed in the black cat charm.
Thirteen let out a yelp.
The Pharaoh murmured, "I see…" He looked up at the other three. "Destroy the charm!"
He lifted up a hand and fired out a blue ray of magic at the choker. Joey, Tristan, and Téa followed his example and zapped at the charm with their rays of green, orange, and pink.
The charm slowly cracked under the power of the magic. Thirteen screamed out with each additional crack formed, growing weaker and weaker by the second.
Finally, the charm shattered into thousands of little pieces. Thirteen let out one final scream, and her entire body glowed with a bright, green light.
When the light finally faded, Thirteen had vanished. Joey reverted his arms back to their normal size.
The five looked down at where the remains of the emerald choker lay. "Well, looks like dat cat's luck finally ran out." Joey said.
"Her days of tormenting those in Domino are over." Bakura gave a sigh of relief. "Thank you for your assistance, everyone. But why aren't you three surprised by the fact that I have powers as well?" he asked Joey, Tristan, and Téa.
Téa laughed and replied, "Once you've met up with shape-shifters, banshees, gremlins, genies, and all of the other mythical creatures that we've seen, nothing could surprise you anymore."
Bakura smiled. "I guess, then, that I still have quite a lot to learn about the magical world."
The Pharaoh held out a hand towards him. "You can if you are willing to join us as an ally."
Bakura nodded and shook the Pharaoh's hand. "I accept the offer."
"Welcome to the team, Bakura," Tristan said.
"Or de loony bin-whichever you prefer, man," Joey laughed.