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The Orichalcos Saga
Fanfic Chapter 195: Friends and Foes Pt 2: Awaking Hermos
Episode Basis: My Freaky Valentine Pt 2
Previously on Yu-Gi-Oh! Not wanting to duel his friend Mai, Joey was being pummeled with her super power harpies and new magic and trap cards. Mai revealed that it was her desire to be the best and her insecurities were a prime target for Valon, a Warrior of Doma. Joey had no idea that Mai was so miserable and his heart went out to her. Even though, that was no excuse to try to destroy them all. But by the time Joey was able to get his act together, he was already down to 200 life points. But now that he has his conviction back, he's ready to show Mai the soul of a true Duelist. But how can he beat a card that even Yami-Yugi couldn't beat?
"Okay, I'm sure it only looks bad," Amara said. "I mean sure Joey's down to 200 life points while Mai still has all of hers and true Mai has six monsters on the field while Joey has none. And granted that when one of them loses, they get their soul sucked into a card but I'm sure it's all good."
"You have a heck of a way of looking on the bright side, Amara," Tristan commented.
"The good news is its Joey's turn," Harold said.
"Isn't there some way that the duel can end without losing either of them?" Yugi asked.
"It's tricky but possible. Despite all of its power, the Seal of Orichalcos does have its limits. First of all, it can only capture one soul at a time. And second, it can only do that if the Duelist loses."
"I don't get it."
"Let's hope Joey does."
Okay, the odds are against me, Joey thought as he looked at his cards. But I think I can turn this around. First thing I have to do is keep those Harpies' claws off my life points and then I have to destroy this magic circle. Hopefully once it's gone, Mai will go back to being her old self.
"Give it up, Wheeler," Valon called. "You don't have what it takes to beat the new and improved Mai!"
"Perhaps he does," Raphael said. Valon looked at the older man like he was off his rocker. "It was obvious that Wheeler didn't want to duel Mai at first but now he's ready to throw down with her."
"Personally I hope he wins," Jonah commented. "That overblown peacock needs to be humbled."
"You take that back!" Valon was ready to slug Jonah off the mezzanine but Raphael stopped him.
"You know it's not nice to hit a lady."
"What do you know?"
"I know that the Sacred Beast needs souls to fuel it and right now yours is looking quite tempting." That shut Valon up.
"I summon the Fiend Megacyber (1)!" Joey announced.
Mai noticed the card, "But that monster has six stars!"
"But its special ability allows me to play it without a sacrifice as long as you have more monsters than me. Now, my fiend, take out one of those harpies!" The armored warrior charged forward and sliced one of the harpies in half.
(M: 3600)
(J: 200)
"All right, Joey's back in the game," Tristan cheered.
"But if Joey wins, we could lose Mai forever," Tea complained.
"And if he loses, we could lose him forever," Harold pointed out. "We're screwed either way."
"I don't think Joey's trying to win, guys," Yami explained.
"What do you mean?" Amara asked.
"I think Joey discovered the only way to ending the duel without either of them losing their souls."
"So Wheeler's decided to go down fighting," Raphael said conversely.
"I don't care," Valon said. "There's no way that punk's going to win."
"I set one card face-down and end my turn."
"So does your decision to fight means you've accepted the fact that we're no longer friends? The part of me that was dumb enough to like you is long gone."
It's been long gone ever since Valon first brought me to that temple to meet his master, Dartz.
"Welcome, Miss Valentine, you've finally come home, my child. No longer will the outside world feed your loneliness. Those who claim to be your friends have turned on you, leaving you to rot in a horrible place like the Shadow Realm."
"Who told you so much about me?"
"You did, I can see it in your eyes. You believe that you deserve more, and you do. You deserve to be the most powerful Duelist the world has ever seen."
"I would do anything for that!"
"Would you be willing to give up your weak side?"
"Anything!"
Dartz put his hand on my forehead and I felt a burst of power. After that, I knew that I would never be the same again.
"From now on, Mai Valentine, you serve the Orichalcos!"
"Its over," Mai told Joey. "As soon as I attack, your life points will be gone and so will your soul!"
Duke Devlin skidded to a halt in front of the Industrial Illusions building. Rex and Weevil, who had apparently never heard of seat belts, had fallen in the back. "That's strange, why would Industrial Illusions be closed at this time of day?" He jumped out of his car and ran up to the front. "I don't believe it, it's really them. Hey guys! It's me!"
Tea and Tristan turned and saw him. "Duke, boy, are we glad to see you."
"Same here but why are Joey and Mai dueling."
"It's kind of a long story."
"We're trapped in here," Tristan informed him. "We need you to find a way to get us out."
"Already on it."
As Duke left, Rex and Weevil also ran up to the front entrance. They gasped at seeing the familiar green circle. "That's the same magic circle that trapped us!" Rex said horrified.
"I sacrifice two of my Harpies in order to summon Harpie's Pet Dragon (2)!" A large orange dragon appeared. "In addition to the 500 point boost it gets from the Seal of Orichalcos, it gets an additional 300 points for every Harpie Lady on my side of the field!"
(HPD: 2000-3400)
"Wow, Mai's really gotten powerful," Weevil gasped.
"Where did she get that Seal card?" Rex wondered.
"Harpie's Pet Dragon, attack his Fiend Megacyber with Fearsome Fire Blast!"
"Hold on, I reveal my trap card Compensation Mediation! Here's how it works, you shuffle my card with two cards from your own graveyard and then I pick one." If I pick my card, the attack is blocked, but if I pick one of yours, I lose the duel." He walked over to Mai's side of the field and handed her his card.
"I can't believe after all this time you're still relying on luck to win a duel," Mai said as she walked across her side of the field to Joey and he handed her his trap card.
"It takes skill to play the right cards at the right time," Joey said. "But a little luck never hurt."
"This is crazy," Valon complained. "You can't risk an entire duel on a guess!"
"If Wheeler is Duelist enough, he can," Raphael informed his comrade.
All the monsters disappeared. Mai shuffled Joey's card with her own two cards. The images appeared face-down on Mai's side of the field. "All right, Hot Shot, choose," Mai said.
"All right, I pick… the middle one! Now show me that trap card!"
The center card was raised.
It was Compensation Mediation!
"I'm still in the game," Joey cheered. "For now anyway."
"True, but remember, your card helped me too."
"What does she mean?" Tea asked.
"Compensation Mediation has one drawback," Yami explained. "Because Joey guessed right, Mai is free to take the two cards she used and return them to the top of her deck." Mai showed Joey the two cards she picked, Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation and Harpie Lady Sparrow Formation.
"Joey must've known about that," Harold said.
"He did," Yami confirmed. "But he decided to take a risk."
"That's Joey for you," Harold said. "If there's even a small chance for success, he's taking it."
"I can't believe Wheeler was able to pull it out," Jonah said. "Lord Raphael…"
"I know, he just may be the strong soul we need after all."
"Oh please, that chump couldn't duel his way out of a wet paper bag let alone out of the Seal of Orichalcos," Valon said.
"My turn isn't over yet," Mai said. "Next I switch one Harpie Lady to my rear defense." One of the Harpies disappeared and reappeared behind Harpie's Pet Dragon. Then I'll place two cards face-down and end my turn."
I've got one more shot, Joey thought. But I'm all out of ideas. He drew a card. "I set one card face-down and throw a monster in defense mode. Then I switch my Fiend Megacyber to defense mode as well."
Duke had run around the perimeter of the building looking for an unlocked door. His last chance was a small maintenance door in the south-west corner of the building.
It was unlocked. Duke gave off a silent cheer and ran inside.
"You're pretty calm for someone who's about to lose his soul," Mai commented.
"I've been in some pretty insane duels in my lifetime," Joey said a little smug. "And if there's one thing I learned, it's to never give up until the last point is gone. And last I checked, I had a few points still left." Mai started to draw a card. "Don't become too attached to that card you just drew, because I'm activating my trap card Drop Off which causes you to lose the card you're drawing."
"Or it would've, if I had not activated my own trap card, Trap Jammer, now by discarding 1 card I can negate your trap card and destroy it." Joey's card was destroyed. Joey cursed. "May I continue?"
"Fine."
"Thank you, as I was saying, it's my draw."
"That card Mai drew," Yami said. "It's either Phoenix or Sparrow formation."
"Which one do you think it is?" Harold asked.
"Harpie's Pet Dragon, attack his Fiend Megacyber with Fearsome Fire Blast!" The dragon destroyed the giant warrior. "Next I'll send one of my Harpies to get rid of your face-down monster."
A giant tree appeared briefly before being destroyed.
"Who's the man?" Joey gloated. "You just destroyed my Fiber Jar (3) now we have to put all our cards into one big pile…"
"And then we each draw five," Mai finished. "I know how it works too bad it won't do any good, I play my own trap card Harpie's Feather Storm which deactivates your monster's effect. Now you're out of monsters again but luckily for you I have to end my turn right after I play Feather Storm."
Joey drew a card. "I set another monster in defense mode."
He's getting desperate.
"Way to go, Mai, now you finish this bum off!" Valon cheered.
"I intend to," Mai said. "I play Harpie Lady Phoenix Formation!" The surviving Harpies once again formed a firebird which dove towards Joey's monster.
"Joey, no!" Tristan cried.
"I can't look," Tea said turning away.
"Looks like its all over for Wheeler," Rex commented.
A cat creature appeared before popping like a balloon.
Joey's life points didn't change.
"What happened, you should've lost the duel! That monster, what was it?"
Joey chuckled lightly, "That was my buddy Neko Mane King (4). He has 0 attack points so I don't lose any life points. You just wasted your best card. And one more thing, because he was sent to the graveyard by a magic card, your turn ends on the spot."
"I'm getting too old for this," Tristan said exasperated.
"This guy has more lives than my cat," Rex commented.
"Is your strategy to drag this duel out forever until I forfeit from boredom?" Mai asked.
"You just worry about your own strategy." The thing is, she's right, I'm just trying to buy for time until I can think of a way out of this mess. I know there must be a card in my deck that can help me. Come on, Heart of the Cards, show me some love! As he touched his deck, it started to glow.
Yami noticed that the Eye of Timaeus card in his deck was glowing too.
In the Blue-Eyes White Jet, Kaiba's deck also started to glow. But only Kaiba noticed it.
Yami and Joey appeared inside the great hall where only two dragon statues remained.
"Where are we?" Joey asked.
"I've been here before," Yami said. "This is Gadira, where the spirits of Duel Monsters live."
"Yeah, but why… yiiii!" Joey screamed at seeing the dragon statue. "That's one big ice sculpture!"
"It's a dragon, frozen in time," Yami explained. "Each dragon has been waiting for a warrior to release it from its ancient prison and I think that this dragon has chosen you."
"Me? Well if you say so, so what do I have to do?"
"Just remove the sword from its forehead."
Joey flew up and pulled on the sword. There was some resistance at first but soon the sword came out. A red dragon burst from its crystal shell. "Okay, Yug, I just have one question: is this thing friendly?"
"What was that?" Kaiba wondered.
"What was what?" Mokuba asked.
"Mokuba, did you see anything unusual?"
"Besides the way you're acting?"
"Never mind, forget about it."
"Lord Raphael, your stone!" Raphael looked down and saw that the stone on his pendant was glowing. "What's going on?"
"The Pharaoh must be behind it."
Joey shook his head to clear it. Whoa, was that a dream? He looked at Yami.
Now Joey has a dragon in his deck, Yami thought.
Joey drew his card and gasped. No way, it's that dragon! This card is just like the one Yugi has. If Yugi's can help him, maybe mine can help me!
"It's awesome," Little-Yugi commented. "Joey must've drawn that dragon he just released."
Yami nodded, "Now that dragon's power belongs to him."
Joey proudly held his card up, "You're about to meet my new friend, Hermos!"
To Be Continued
Duel Monster Database
(1)
Name: The Fiend Megacyber
Level: 6
Type: Warrior/Effect
Attribute: Dark
ATK: 2200
DEF: 1200
(2)
Name: Harpie's Pet Dragon
Level: 7
Type: Dragon/Effect
Attribute: Wind
ATK: 2000
DEF: 2500
(3)
Name: Fiber Jar
Level: 3
Type: Plant/Effect
Attribute: Earth
ATK: 500
DEF: 500
(4)
Name: Neko Mane King
Level: 1
Type: Beast/Effect
Attribute: Earth
ATK: 0
DEF: 0
A/N: Okay, time for another history lesson folks (don't worry, this won't take long). "Hermos" is most likely a shortened form of the name Hermocrates, a statesman and a soldier for the ancient Italian city of Syracuse. He was an actual historical figure (as was Critias but not Timaeus) who played a big part in the Peloponnesian War between the ancient Greeks of Athens and the Spartans. It is largely theorized that Plato was going to write a dialogue called Hermocrates but Plato died before he could even start it so we may never know. The only other main character in Plato's dialogues regarding Atlantis is Socrates, the ancient philosopher who was killed for corrupting the minds of Athenian youth but don't expect the fourth dragon to be named after him. Socrates was also Plato's mentor.