The sun was beginning to set over the big apple. It had been a long day for the surviving duelists, and it was about to get even longer.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for the semi-finals! First Joey Wheeler will be going up against Mai Valentine, and then Yugi Moto will go up against Seto Kaiba in a rematch that's sure to leave everyone glued their seats!"
"And ours won't?" asked Mai.
"We'll stop their hearts."
As soon as the crowds were back in their seats, word went out for Joey and Mai to take the field.
"This should be good."
"I should hope so. The two of them haven't shut up about it since we got here." said Tristan.
"Let's duel!"
Joey and Mai's duel disks were supposed to synchronize with the scoreboard and with each other, but instead of the four digit total of life points something else came up instead.
HAHA
"What the…"
Suddenly some strange and overly dramatic sounding music began to play over the speakers. Yugi and the others couldn't place the exact instruments, music wasn't their area of expertise, but it sounded like an entire symphony was playing.
"What is that?" asked Yugi.
Just then Tea remembered where she had heard this song before. One of her dance instructors had once performed to a segment of this, and it was by far the most passionate thing she had ever seen.
"It's the Dante Symphony!"
"The what?"
Before Tea could answer, the unmistakable sound of gunshots being fired rang over the sound of the music, quickly followed by screaming. A man in a long black cloak and a crimson faceless mask came galloping into the stands on a horse that resonated with a pale green glow and started shooting at any security guards that came his way.
"WHAT THE HELL!?"
"GET DOWN!" screamed Tristan throwing himself on top of the others.
The man on the horse made his way down to the arena and continued to shoot at any one that tried to stop him. Mai was already on the move and Joey rushed to protect her as the horse came jumping over the archway at the bottom of the stairs and touched down on the arena's floor. He dismounted his horse as more security guards came charging out into the ring, and from nowhere he produced a large blade and began hacking them to pieces. The crowds tried to flee, but the gates had been shut and locked tight. As they tried to force their way through the masked man finished the last of the security guards. He then spoke through the microphone in his mask.
"Ladies and gentlemen!"
His voice was inaudible over all the shouting and screaming.
"Ladies and gentlemen!"
Still no response.
"Alright… I tried being nice."
He pressed a button on his arm, and suddenly the skybox seats exploded along with his horse.
"SHUT UP!"
The crowds immediately fell silent.
"Is everyone… okay?" asked Yugi with his face pressed into the ground.
"I will be… as soon as Tristan get's his elbow out of my face." said Tea.
"Oh my god… oh my god… oh my god…" said Serenity.
"Now that I have your undivided attention, you're all probably wondering who I am and why I just shot all the security guards in the face or cut them to ribbons, and I'm pretty sure I also just killed your mayor and at least one of the heads of the five families. I could bore you with my life story, but since we're so pressed for time I think it'll sufice to say that I'm a bad man. You can call me Abaddon, and I'm here for your semi-finalists. You see, dueling is my favorite hobby. By now you've probably noticed that Rex Raptor, Weevil Underwood, and several other duelists have gone missing. That's because I killed them."
Abaddon pushed another button on his arm, and suddenly the screens all around the stadium showed Rex, Weevil, and other duelists begging for their lives before being locked in freezers, having their skulls crushed, or having some other violent end befall them.
"Oh my god..." said Yugi.
Weevil and Rex were jerks, that much was certain, but they didn't derseve what Yugi saw hadppened to them. Nobody deserved that.
"So... who want's to go first?" asked Abaddon.
Nobody moved.
"Well, don't everyone volunteer at once. I know what you're thinking, I just killed a lot of people in front of a live television audience, so New York's finest must be on their way, along with the FBI and just about every other agency you can think of. For this very reason I've taken the liberty of planting bombs all across the city, and attaching them to this."
Abaddon opened up his cloak, there was some kind of box strapped to his chest.
"The bombs I've placed across the city are linked to my heart rate monitor. If it flatlines for any reason, or if a single person leaves this stadium, the bombs will detonate. And just to show you that I'm not bluffing..."
Abaddon pressed another button on his arm, and the images on the screens around the stadium changed to the Statue of Liberty.
BOOM!
Right before their eyes Lady Liberty's head exploded. The echo was heard all across the city.
"From sea to shining sea!" sang Abaddon sarcastically "And just so you know, I've still got plenty of ammo left. Either we start dueling, or I start choping heads."
Abaddon turned his head at the sound of a child crying.
"What's going on over here?"
"No..."
Abaddon slowly walked over with his guns drawn.
"What's wrong? Spilled your ice cream?"
"God no... she can't be any more than seven." said Tea.
"You know... I tend to like my ice cream smothered in chocolate... of course I usually apply some food coloring to it."
"Leave them alone!"
"Joey!"
Abaddon immediately turned his attention.
"Ah... Joseph, the little duelist that could. You've come a very long way since Duelist Kingdom."
"Do I know you?"
"No... but I've been playing this game since before you touched your first card. I've always been around. The Regionals, Duelist Kingdom, Battle City... but not all of us have your luck."
"I'm curious... If you wanted to duel so badly, why didn't you just join the tournament like the rest of us?"
Abaddon laughed.
"I only duel worthy opponents, and I like to duel with an added twist... like this."
Without warning Abaddon chucked a small blade that grazed Joey's forearm.
"NO!"
When Joey looked at the cut it didn't look too bad, but then it started stinging, and he saw that there was some discoloration in the blood.
"What the hell did you do to me?"
"You've just been poisoned."
To be continued
Next time: Joey vs. Abaddon
