CHAPTER NINE: Duel of the Dark Lords, Pt 2

Well, here's the next chapter. Hope you all like it.

Here are two reviews that require answering.

Rogue1979: Thanks. Frankly, I thought that I was making Marik a bit OOC with all the comments and jokes.

Metal Overlord 2.0: Glad you read it. Thanks for the comments, and yup, expect some intense duels in this story. Thanks again.

Well, on with the story.

Kaiba leaned against the wall of the exhibit. Why on earth did Ishtar have to conduct these useless 'meetings'? In the museum at that. Of course, she had invited the geek squad as well, along with the spiky haired freak. He would have never come, unless his brother hadn't been kidnapped. Kaiba had contacted the Secret Service at once, and even the FBI. They couldn't find a trace of him. Getting even angrier, he had paid a brilliant private detective $250,000 to find Mokuba, but even that was unsuccessful. He had put aside all his work, and was extending all his resources to track down Mokuba, but it was in vain.

"Hey Kaiba," said Yugi, trying to sound cheerful. Seto ignored him and closed his eyes. "Forget rich boy Yuge," said Joey. Kaiba opened his eyes and was about to retort, when Ishizu walked into the room. She nodded. "Thank you all for coming."

"But why'd you call us Ishizu?" asked Yugi. "Did you find out where Marik is hiding?" Ishizu sighed. "No." Yugi's face fell. "By that I mean that I do not know exactly where he is. His Millennium Rod is blocking out my powers. Both me and Bakura tried our hardest to locate him, but it was impossible. But I do have a rough idea."

"He's in New York," spoke up Bakura. He had already changed into Yami form, and was grinning smugly. Joey almost fell over. "Was, in New York, that is to say," he continued. "He is currently in Egypt, but it seems to be temporary, as the three Gods are still in New York."

"However, when we located him at Egypt, we felt another terrible power there." "Anubis?" said Yugi fearfully. Ishizu shook her head. "What my brother's dark side told you wasn't quite accurate. Anubis is merely a shadow, unlike Marik. The Pyramid of Light does exist, but only a fragment of his soul is present in it as most of his being went into the formation of the Dark Gods. But it is enough to inhabit someone's body. I must warn you, if you encounter him, do not attempt to duel him. If you lose, he will be able to take control of your body."

"But enough on that subject," said Bakura. "You'll want to know the identity of the other powerful entity there." "Who is it?" asked Yugi quietly. "Dartz."

Everyone except Kaiba fell over in shock. But even Kaiba was shocked. "Dartz?" he gasped. Ishizu nodded. "We were shocked as well. It seems that somehow nearly all the powerful entities of ancient times have been revived. I do not know how, but we must concentrate on the problem at hand. My Millennium Necklace has allowed me to glean some devastating information." "What's that?" asked Joey.

"Everyone who has ever played the Seal of Orichalcos will be under Dartz's control." "But that means Yami…" Ishizu cut him off. "The Pharaoh's Puzzle will protect him against Dartz. He will be able to resist the grip of the Orichalcos, but I'm afraid everyone else won't be so lucky." Joey thought sadly, "Mai…"

Kaiba snarled, "So the creeps are in New York? Fine. I'll call the NYPD." Ishizu shook her head. "Kaiba? Don't you realize that mortal policemen don't stand a chance against Marik and Dartz? You probably will get your brother back, but Marik will use him as leverage in a duel. He'll send one of his minions to steal your Blue Eyes White Dragons in exchange for your brother."

Kaiba grunted but didn't say anything. "So we'll be going to New York?" asked Yugi. Ishizu nodded. "I'll be able to buy you tickets." Someone cleared his throat. Kaiba said quietly, "I'm leaving tomorrow for New York. If you want, Yugi, you can accompany me. Although I hate to admit it, I'll need your help if I'm going to win those Dark Gods from Marik."

Yugi smirked inwardly. Just like Kaiba to say something like that. He would try his luck…. "Sorry, Kaiba, but I'll stay with my friends." Kaiba glared but said, "Fine, bring your geek squad too. But, Wheeler, I swear, if you so much as scratch one of the seats, I swear I will kill you!"

He turned around and walked away. Before leaving, he said, "Be at the airport tomorrow at nine a.m. sharp." He then walked away. Tea sweat-dropped anime style. Joey muttered, "Rich-boy always has to be dramatic, doesn't he?"

Marik broke into evil laughter as the three sphinxes disappeared, one by one. He slapped a card onto his Duel Disk. At that second, all Hell broke lose. Five bolts of lightning struck the dueling field, and thunder was heard. As Dartz glanced around, he could make out vague shapes of darkness and light swirling into the field from all directions. Marik raised a hand and said, "Come forth, my almighty God!" The streams of light and darkness slammed into each other and formed a new, humanoid shape.

There was a flash of light, and a new monster was standing in front of Marik. It wasn't as gigantic as the Obelisk, Slifer and Ra, but was large nonetheless, standing at least fifty feet tall. It was dressed in shining black and white armor; with plates covering it's shoulders and knees. Spikes issued from the plates. It had a solid steel helmet, which was designed in such a way, that only its blood red eyes were visible. In one hand it held a long, red daemon-blade, with a symbol on the pommel. The symbol represented streams of light and darkness streaming in from all directions. It had a gray cape hanging from it's shoulders.

Dartz shuddered. The most unnerving part of the creature was that it was absolutely silent and didn't seem alive.

"Finally, my God has arrived…" Marik chuckled quietly. Dartz tried to save face and sneered, "What was with the light-show?"

"Doesn't the name mean anything to you? He is Giglamesh the Chaos Warrior. E is the avatar and embodiment of chaos throughout the ages. He is the god and creator of chaos. In a way, he is chaos itself. Hence his chaotic summoning."

Suddenly, Giglamesh glowed and looked up at Dartz. "Giglamesh's attack and defense points are quite strangely determined as well. They are equal to the combined number of stars of the sacrificed monsters multiplied by four hundred."

Dartz gasped.

"All three sphinxes had 10 stars, time three, for a total of 30. If you multiply that by 400, my sphinx has 12000 attack and defense points." Giglamesh gave a strange cry and raised his sword. Translucent images of Andro Sphinx, Sphinx Teleia and Thenien flew into his sword. The dark God (12000/12000) had now reached an unmatched level of power.

"And I only had to use it's first ability," Marik sneered. Dartz couldn't believe it. The chaos warrior was almost twice as strong as his dragon. "Now, Giglamesh, end it with Divine Chaotic Slash!" The God growled and leapt up and forward. It slashed its blade sideways and sliced off the Orichalcos Demon Dragon's head. There was an explosion. Marik sneered. "I win." He saw the life-point counter. "What the hell?!"

(Marik: 0, Dartz: 0)

Kaiba had just reached his mansion. He got out of the limo and was about to enter the house when a voice said, "Seto Kaiba?" Kaiba wheeled around to see a young teenager. He must have been fifteen or sixteen. He had blonde hair, and piercing blue eyes. With a smooth face, he was dressed in a white T-shirt and blue jeans. On his arm was a Duel Disk.

"Who are you?" said Kaiba shortly. "My name is Kevin Hunter."

"Well, yippee for you," said Kaiba sarcastically and walked to the door, but the boy blocked him. "What d'you want?" he snarled. "I'm here to challenge you to a duel." "I don't have time to duel dregs like you. Get out of the way or I'll call security." Kevin shrugged. "Fine. Never knew that Seto Kaiba turns down duels from people whom he could beat so easily."

Kaiba snarled. He hated these kind of challengers. It was like emotional blackmail! Of course, if this Hunter kid went to the press, all those fools out there would believe it. "Be at the Kaiba Corp. Duel Dome in ten minutes."

Kevin smirked. "Seto Kaiba…. I've waited long for this. Finally, I'll get my due."

Ten minutes later, at the Duel Dome, Kaiba was glaring at Kevin. "You're going to regret ever challenging me. Especially, when I'm in a bad mood," he growled, activating his Duel Disk. "I don't think so," replied Kevin, slotting his deck in. "We'll just see which one of us is the true master of dragons."

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "Dragons, huh? Interesting. But I still think you'll find that none of your little reptiles can stand up to the might if the Blue Eyes White Dragon!"

(Seto: 8000, Kevin: 8000)

Kaiba looked at his hand. "Challengers go first." Kevin snickered. "Fine. I'll place a monster in defense mode. I think I'll call it a turn."

Kaiba drew his sixth card. "I summon Luster Dragon (1900/1600) in attack mode!" A sapphire armored dragon appeared on Kaiba's field. It had red eyes. "Attack with Ruby Burst!" The dragon fired a ball of red energy at the facedown card, revealing it to be a red and white dragon with a long neck before it was destroyed.

Kevin chuckled. "It was Masked Dragon (1400/1100). When he's destroyed, I can summon one dragon with 1500 or less attack points from my deck to the field." He held up a card. "I choose the Divine Dragon Ragnarok (1500/1100)!" A long, pink serpentine beast appeared on the field. In fact, it looked like a translucent dragon from Chinese mythology.

Kaiba raised an eyebrow. "That pathetic snake is going to help you defeat me? I don't think so." Kevin rolled his eyes. "You fool. Dueling doesn't depend on the cards. It depends on how you use them. If you end you're turn, I'll show you the true power of the Divine Dragon Ragnarok." "Fine," spat Kaiba. "I'll place one card face down and leave it at that."

Kevin drew and chuckled. "I activate Polymerization, fusing the Lord of Dragons (1200/1100) in my hand with Divine Dragon Ragnarok to summon my almighty fusion, King Dragun (2400/1100)!" Kevin discarded the Lord of Dragons and the Divine Dragon Ragnarok. There was a flash of light, and a new beast was on the field. It had a long, brown serpentine body, with the torso and head of a fiend with two green wings.

Kaiba's breath caught in his throat. "Next I'll activate it's special effect. I can now automatically special summon a dragon from my hand. And I choose Kaiser Glider (2400/2200)!" A metallic new dragon appeared. It looked like a smaller version of the Winged Dragon of Ra. Kaiba swore angrily.

"Kaiser Glider, attack his Luster Dragon with Ancient Flame!" The metallic dragon threw back it's head and fired a wave of fire at Kaiba's dragon. "Sorry, I activate Sarketsu Armor, which destroys your attacking monster!" Plates of metal flew in from all directions and covered the Luster Dragon. But the flames continued on and burned it to a crisp.

"What the…" snarled Kaiba.

"Did I forget to mention that King Dragun protects all my dragons from spell, trap and monster effects?" said Kevin. Kaiba snarled as his Luster Dragon was blown away. "King Dragun, your turn! Attack with Dragon Master Blast!" The human-adder fired a blast of rainbow colored lights that consumed Kaiba and brought him to his knees. "End turn."

(Seto: 5100, Kevin: 8000)

Kaiba drew. "I place a monster in defense mode and end my turn."

Now it was back to Kevin. "King Dragun attack!" The powerful reptile fired a beam of rainbow energy at Kaiba's monster. "It was Masked Dragon (1400/1100)!" The monster that Kevin had used a few turns ago was destroyed by the powerful beast. "And I'll use it to summon my almighty Spirit Ryu (1000/1000) in attack mode." A new monster appeared that looked like a hybrid of a pterodactyl and a dragon. It opened it's wings and screeched. Kevin shrugged.

"Kaiser Glider, attack!" "Idiot," muttered Kaiba. "I activate Spirit Ryu's effect! By discarding any number of dragons from my hand I can increase it's ATK by 1000 for each dragon until the end of the turn. And I'll discard three!" Kevin gasped as Kaiba slid three cards into his graveyard and the Spirit Ryu's ATK shot up to 4000. "Oops," he thought, as the Spirit Ryu let out a backlash of white energy, which consumed his Kaiser Glider.

(Seto: 5100, Kevin: 6400)

"I end my turn," said Kevin. He then pointed out, "Spirit Ryu does lose it's bonus attack points." Kaiba shrugged. "Like I care."

He drew and grinned. "First I'll switch Spirit Ryu to defense mode." The dragon drew its wings around itself. "Then I'll place one card face down and end my turn."

Kevin drew. "King Dragun, attack!" The serpentine monster blasted the Spirit Ryu with its Dragon Master Blast, obliterating it. "I think I'll call it a turn."

Kaiba drew and said, "I activate Pot of Greed, allowing me to draw two cards." He snapped the top two cards of his deck and began to laugh. "You fool! You dared to challenge me, and now you'll pay the price! I activate Dragon's Mirror, which let's me remove fusion material dragons in my graveyard from play, to summon the fusion monster that they form." He slid three cards out of his graveyard and Kevin gasped when Kaiba revealed them to be three Blue Eyes White Dragons (3000/2500).

"I'm fusing my three Blue Eyes White Dragons to summon my ultimate fusion. Meet the Blue Eyes Ultimate Dragon (4500/3800)!" The gigantic three headed behemoth appeared behind Kaiba and roared at the comparatively tiny King Dragun. "Next I'll activate Megamorph. When I have less life-points then you do, my dragon's attack points are doubled."

Kevin paled as the Ultimate Dragon's ATK shot up to 9000. "End it," said Kaiba dismissively. "Neutron Blast Attack!" The dragon three all it's three heads back, and blue energy began to form in them. When it had finished charging up it's attack, it hurled the attack at Kevin's serpentine monster, which tired to defend itself, but was completely incinerated.

Kaiba's Duel Disk powered down as the Ultimate Dragon roared in victory and disappeared. Kevin fell to his knees; his eyes open wide in shock. "H-how could I lose?" Kaiba heard him muttering. "Get over it, kid," Kaiba sneered. "You were facing a World Champion, odds were you'd lose no matter what."

Kevin looked up and whispered, "The Blue Eyes…" Kaiba chuckled. "The Blue Eyes White Dragons? Now I see. You were dueling me in the hope of winning them. Well, get this into you head, Hunter. No duelist has ever defeated the Blue Eyes White Dragons, save Yugi Moto. But that's not the point. My advice to you is to get the foolish idea of winning my dragons out of your head. As I just said, you'll have to beat a World Champion to get them."

He turned around and began to walk away. Kevin glared at him, and something in his mind clicked. Without thinking, he rushed forward and attempted to punch Kaiba. With lightning fast reflexes, Kaiba whirled around and grabbed his hand, and punched him away with his other fist. Kevin was knocked to the ground, with a cut on his chin. "I lost," he whispered.

Kaiba snorted. "Idiot. Get out of here, unless you want me to call security. Lucky for you, I'm busy with other matters, and I won't file a complaint against your attack on me." He then walked out of the Duel Dome to his waiting limousine.

Kevin couldn't understand. He had studied each and every one of Kaiba's duels, learning his strategy, and devising ways to counter it. It wasn't possible. He had built his deck so that it would counter Kaiba's exactly, throwing light on all its weaknesses. "How could he have lost???

"Explain yourself," Marik roared at Dartz angrily, as the Seal began to contract. However, it was a draw, so neither had lost their souls. "That's just my Orichalcos Demon Dragon's effect," smirked Dartz.

"When it's destroyed, it inflicts damage to your life-points equal to it's attack points. Since your life-points were only 3600, you lost as well, ending the match in a draw."

Marik's furious look gradually changed to a morbid smile. "I must say, that was impressive," he said slowly. "You were able to physically survive the onslaught of my Dark God: only one has been able to do that before, and that was a very long time ago."

Dartz smirked at the meaningless praise and said, "So what's your conclusion?" Marik grinned back. "I think I'm interested in having your help for my revenge against the Pharaoh." He held out a hand. Dartz shook it, never once letting his gaze down.

Dartz let go and smirked, "So do you really think tat you can defeat the Pharaoh?" Marik's expression darkened and he said, "Of course I can! I already have, but I've only got the three Gods. Next time I duel him, I will get his Puzzle as well. And no, the Gods cannot be used to revive your goldfish."

Dartz snarled. "The Great Leviathan is more powerful than all six of your Egyptian Gods put together! You'll see. I'll be the one who crushes the Pharaoh." Marik shrugged. "That's your view of it. Anyway, I'm returning to my base in New York City." "Fine." Marik raised his Rod, and Dartz's Orichalcos stone began to glow. They were just about to disappear, when Marik stopped. Dartz questioned, "What's the matter?" "Oh, I just have to take care of something. You go on ahead. I'll be back."

Fine," said Dartz, and vanished. Marik grinned and vanished as well.

Kevin had now left the Duel Dome, but was still in shock. He tumbled into his motel room in the outskirts of Domino, and collapsed on his bed. The words were still rolling through his head, "I lost, I lost, I lost……" Suddenly, there was a glowing of light in the darkness and Kevin was aware of another person in the room. He got up and snarled, "Whose there?" The voice chuckled, bemused. "Kevin Hunter…."

Kevin snarled and said, "Who are you?" He rushed forward and tried to punch the figure, but his punch was blacked by an invisible barrier. "What the hell?" he snarled angrily. The man walked out of the shadows, and revealed himself. When he saw him, Kevin gasped.

He was dressed in a black T-shirt, and khaki pants. He was wearing a purple overcoat. In his hand was a rod made of gold with a ball on one end. His face was terrifying, with all kinds of scars and marks on it. He had spiky, golden hair. "You want to defeat Kaiba, don't you?" he said lustily.

Kevin, bewildered, muttered, "Yeah, I do. What's it to you?" The man chuckled. "Oh, it means a lot. You see, I can give you the means to defeat him, and take his Blue Eyes White Dragons." Kevin gasped. "How can I get it?"

The man smirked. "Be at the site of the World Trade Center in New York at one a.m. tomorrow." He raised his rod. "By the way, the name's Marik." He then disappeared. Kevin was dazed. A strange man had suddenly appeared in his room and told him he would help him defeat the duelist he'd wanted to duel since he had known about the game. His duelist's mental voice spoke out. He had to do it. Kaiba was another target and was meant to be defeated.

It was too much for Kevin. Finally, he made up his mind and got up. He would do it.

Yugi was deep in thought as he sat in Kaiba's plane. A lot had happened during the past few days. Yami's return was one of the good things, but everything else: down in the dumps. He sighed and leaned back on his reclining chair. Everyone else was asleep, as the flight was very long, for Domino was on the west coast of the United States, while New York was six hours away.

He had to admit, Kaiba's plane was luxurious, with every seat like a First Class seat on the most expensive airlines in the world, but that really didn't change anything. He sighed again, and jumped up. He then walked over to the window on the plane. He couldn't see anything, as they were cruising at Mach 1.8, forty-five thousand feet above ground level.

"Couldn't sleep, huh," said a grumpy voice behind him. Yugi grinned. "So what's up, Kaiba?" The CEO didn't answer, and instead stared out of the window. "That fool Marik," he whispered. "He messed with me, and he will pay." "That he will," said Yugi quietly. Kaiba could se the anger in his eyes. It was unnatural to see the calm, quiet Yugi Moto like this, but Kaiba didn't blame him. Marik Ishtar, or whoever that crazy fool was, had committed more crimes in his life than anyone Kaiba knew. He clutched his fist tightly as his nails dug into his palm, nearly drawing blood.

For a reason he couldn't fanthom, Kaiba casually told Yugi about the incident with Kevin Hunter. This perked Yugi's interest. "Strange. I know that there must be duelists who are desperately after your Blue Eyes, just as there are duelists who want my God cards, but I didn't think anyone would go to such lengths as trying to physically assault you." Kaiba was about to answer, when they suddenly heard a yell, "HOLY CRAP! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!"

IMPORTANT. PLEASE READ.

Does anyone know the time difference between the original series of Yu-Gi-Oh, and Yu-Gi-Oh GX? If you do know, please speak up, as this could be extremely important to the plot. By the way, a note on Kevin Hunter would be necessary.

He was created by BEWK-Blue Eyes White Knight, for those of you who haven't seen him in other Yu-Gi-Oh stories. I think it's fitting that this chapter is dedicated to BEWK.

P.S. I don't want to sound like I'm going on about this, but 676 reads and 8 reviews kind of irritates a guy. Just press the little purple button and leave your comments. Thanks a lot.