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Chapter 21
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Aaron | Copycat
4000 | 4000

"Alright then," Aaron growled as he lifted his Duel Disk. The device activated with a whirring of tiny motors, the outer edge sliding out and extending in preparation for cards to be placed on it. "But don't think you're just gonna intimidate me into backing down this time. I'm not the weakling I used to be."

"We shall see, little boy. We shall see," mocked his opponent. One could almost hear the smile unfolding behind the mirror hiding the clownish figure's face.

Aaron stared daggers at his opponent, the Copycat who had been impersonating him since before Victor had brought anyone to the Duel Realm. He had suffered through six months of random beatings and torture at an otherworldly prison because of this little freak, and by all that he held holy, he was going to make him pay for it. His eyes narrowed venomously and settled on the mirror Copycat hid behind, almost as if the fire of his gaze could pierce through the glassy surface and see the creature's true face. If it even had one. "Alright then," he said with finality after drawing a card, "The first turn is mine. I summon The Six Samurai - Nisashi. And I'll place a facedown card and then end. Hit me with your best shot."

As soon as the card was played, a pillar of green light erupted straight up from the ground on Aaron's side of the field. The familiar black outline of the samurai Nisashi stood in the pillar's center, his two swords held ready to attack as the rest of the pillar vanished into the sky. He was easily recognizable by the distinctive jade armor he wore, as well as by the two swords he was holding. One was a katana with a long blade and the other was a wakizashi that he held like a dagger. A soft green glow that was identical to the pillar's shone from each of the two blades. That glow, combined with the neon tracings on his armor, added a strangely futuristic look to his otherwise antiquated appearance.

And despite the bravado of Nisashi's entrance, the Copycat seemed anything but impressed. A yawn came from behind the mirror hiding his face before he placed both hands on his hips impatiently, the mirror levitating in place where his hand had left it. "Hmph…" Copycat grunted, "Well if that's all, then I'll start my turn now. I say, I think I might just place these three facedown cards before setting a monster as well. That will be all for me."

A set of three facedown cards appeared in his back row with the Copycat's words, followed by another that appeared in his Monster Zone. Nisashi seemed to narrow his eyes at the facedown monster and obvious traps, the long blade of his katana resting over one shoulder while his other hand clenched the handle of his wakizashi tightly.

"Don't go easy on me, or you'll regret it. It's my turn now," Aaron growled. After drawing his next card, he studied his hand carefully before an idea made him nod confidently. "So far, so good," he seemed to think before he took one card and placed it on his Duel Disk next to Nisashi's card. "Watch closely now. Since I have a 'Six Samurai' monster on my field, I'm allowed to Special Summon the Grandmaster of the Six Samurai from my hand. And since he's out now, I'll have two 'Six Samurai' monsters on my field, which then allows me to Special Summon the Great Shogun Shien right from my hand as well!"

Another pillar of light appeared on Aaron's side of the field, but this one was a metallic silver in color rather than the neon green that Nisashi had been summoned with. The dark outline of yet another proud warrior stood in the fading pillar's center, revealing an aged man who gripped a sheathed katana with the tip resting on the ground like it was a cane. Like his title suggested, the Grandmaster of the Six Samurai carried an air of authority and experience that none dared to question. His white hair hung long and loosely framed the sides of his bearded face as he glared sternly at the Copycat across from where he stood. His armor only consisted of samurai greaves, strangely robotic-looking gauntlets, and hip pauldrons that were all dark silver in color with intricate and strangely cybernetic white tracings over the armor pieces. He only wore a simple yukata and samurai leggings beneath the armor. Other than that, the only other detail was the eye patch covering his right eye. It held a strange red lens that seemed to glare at the Copycat just as sternly as his real eye.

Not even a second after the Grandmaster's arrival, a second pillar of light burst from the ground on Aaron's side of the field. But unlike the ones that Nisashi and the Grandmaster had been summoned through, this one was much larger and was a deep crimson in color. The outline of Great Shogun Shien shone clearly within the pillar as it towered into the sky before disappearing, revealing a giant samurai warrior that was clad in heavy plate armor the color of fire and blood. The front of his chest plate was emblazoned with a design of ghostly blue flame that shone starkly against the red of his armor. The cape over his shoulders seemed to spread behind him into a wall of thick shadow. His eyes were nothing more than molten red embers that blazed ominously beneath the brim of his helm, which was topped by a stylized flame crest. If there was only one master who could command the respect of the Six Samurai to kneel at his feet, then that master could be no one besides the Great Shogun Shien himself. Not even the closely-trimmed grey beard covering his chin did anything to diminish the Shogun's fiercely intimidating aura.

Satisfied that he now held the advantage, Aaron frowned determinedly and placed another card onto his Duel Disk. "Now I'll activate the Equip Spell, United We Stand, to Nisashi. This will give him an extra 800 Attack Points for every monster I have on my field, which puts him at an even 3800 Attack Points."

Meanwhile, the rest of the group was watching Aaron's duel with a mixture of shock and amazement in their faces. They had always known Aaron as the shy, quiet, and meek kid who always stuttered in his speech whenever he became nervous. He had been just another social misfit who sat quietly in class and hoped that he wouldn't be called on to stutter out an answer to a question. In short, he had been about as unthreatening as anyone could possibly get.

But now…. That Aaron was just a memory. His time spent wrongfully imprisoned in a Duel Realm cell had seen to that. And the new tougher and more confident Aaron was ready to start kicking some serious Copycat ass.

"What the hell..?" Milly breathed in wide-eyed amazement before turning to Ian. "Are you sure this is the Aaron we all know?"

"Yeah," Ian chuckled, holding back from laughing out loud as he settled back. He'd been unconsciously leaning forward as he watched the duel start with an intensity he hadn't seen in a long time. "Not since Mitch dueled Aaron," the thought with no small amount of impression. "This is definitely him...only he's worked up now. I gotta say, it's pretty scary."

"All right! Let's go, Nisashi! Strike down his monster!" Aaron shouted as he jammed a fist forward in the air, signaling his samurai to begin the assault.

Nodding a grim response to Aaron, Nisashi gripped his swords tightly and dashed forward at the facedown monster on Copycat's field. The speed at which he ran almost seemed to make him fly across the field, his swords held out like the wings of a hawk as he moved across the field. Then, just as he was within reach of Copycat's facedown monster, he reversed the grip on his katana and sent the flashing blade stabbing down into the surface of the card.

It was a mistake that would cost Aaron dearly.

"Oh… Bad luck, sport," Copycat chuckled as his card opened up to reveal its true form. It was a golden Arabian oil lamp that stood upon four metallic and spidery legs. And it was completely unharmed despite Nisashi's powerful attack.

"You've revealed my Ancient Lamp, which when attacked while facedown will redirect your attack to one of your own monsters of my choosing. And I think I'll choose the Shogun in the corner there. That old codger is long past his prime, anyway."

Upon Copycat's words, the lamp suddenly released a bright flash that knocked the katana out of Nisashi's hand and sent it spinning in an arc towards Great Shogun Shien. The warlord barely had time to yell in surprise before the tip of the katana pierced him through the middle of his chest plate, his free hand moving to grip the blade in a futile attempt to remove it. Nisashi could only shout out an anguished warning to Aaron before his Lord burst into a brightly burning red blaze that singed Aaron while leaving nothing of Shien's body behind.

Aaron | Copycat
2700 | 4000

Aaron gasped at the damage and seemed to double over in pain, but then he stood back up and grinned at Copycat. "You'll have to do better than those parlor tricks because Nisashi still has a second attack! Swing again, Nisashi! Strike down that Lamp for good!"

Nisashi immediately turned upon the Ancient Lamp upon hearing Aaron's command. The samurai code of honor forbade that he ever display any sign of hesitation to the enemy and he wasn't about to start breaking that code now. Taking his wakizashi into a two-handed grip, the samurai launched himself at his adversary while holding the blade close to his body with the tip pointing forward. Then, with the swiftness of the wind, he thrust the blade forward and sent it stabbing right at the polished surface of the Ancient Lamp's flank.

"Bad luck again, little boy!" Copycat cackled gleefully. "Trap Card, activate! Shift! This lets me send your attack another direct once again, and this one is going straight for the Grandmaster!"

Just then, the Ancient Lamp suddenly split into a number of illusionary copies that spun around Nisashi at a hypnotic speed. The samurai felt the ground giveaway beneath his feet and soon he simply couldn't tell up from down and found himself running forward on sheer reflexes. But then, with a horrifying flash that brought him back to reality, the illusions of the Lamp suddenly vanished and he found that he was nearly face-to-face with the Grandmaster of the Six Samurai. Before he knew what he was doing, his blade had penetrated the chest of his commander. Both warriors slumped to the ground, one dead and the other defeated.

Aaron | Copycat
1800 | 4000

"Oh no…" Ritsuko gasped while covering her mouth. "This isn't good. Aaron's already below half his starting Life Points, and it's only his second turn."

"Damn it," Ian muttered as he bit his thumbnail. "At this rate, Copycat will easily win. How do you stop a guy who throws everything you do right back at you?"

Aaron seemed to be pondering that same question. The only thing he could do was clench his jaw in fury and conclude the rest of his turn. "I set two more cards and end my turn."

"Ha! Is that all?" the Copycat jeered at Aaron as he danced more of his annoying little jig. "I'd have thought you'd be tougher than this since you've spent six months waiting for revenge. But… Well, I guess some people are disappointments, after all." He could tell that his taunts had stung Aaron like a slap in the face, which he enjoyed quite a lot. The boy's furious expression made the grin on his invisible face spread even wider as he drew his next card. "Well…. Since you're so upset, I'll spare you any more embarrassment and end things now. I sacrifice my Ancient Lamp and summon forth the Labyrinth Wall."

Copycat's Ancient Lamp disappeared behind a wall of steam that billowed from the tip its spout, but no other monster seemed to come after that. The strange absence made Aaron and the others, save for Victor, blink owlishly between the empty spot on the field and the strange prancing caped clown hiding behind the mirror. Maybe he was trying to trick Aaron and lied about the card he was summoning?

"Hey, what's the deal?" demanded Aaron to Copycat. "I thought you were summon-"

That was when the ground started to rumble beneath his feet.

"What-" Aaron sputtered incredulously, his feet almost losing their balance as the quaking grew more violent. "Wha-What in the world!?"

"Oh, crud…." Victor muttered when he noticed what was happening. His eyes narrowed and darted between them and Copycat. Or rather at the spot where Copycat was last seen prancing his silly jig. He must've made a quick getaway when the ground had started to shake, and if Victor knew that little mirror freak, then the rumbling happening now was obviously his doing. And if he was right about what this rumbling meant, and he had a really good feeling that he was, then getting separated would be a deadly mistake. Just the thought of that and the knowledge that Copycat had tricked them all like this was enough to make Victor's frown deepen into a snarl.

"Everyone get together! NOW!" he shouted to the others as loud as he could. His hands had already grabbed Ian and Ritsuko by the back of their uniforms and were throwing them at Aaron like they were sacks of potatoes, followed by Milly who made the silly attempt of trying to scratch out Victor's eyes as he grabbed her around the waist. She was shouting something about "personal space" and "damn perverts" just before he sent her flying at the others with another powerful toss. If the situation hadn't been so dire, he might've found their surprised protests and screams to be funny.

Actually, scratch that. He definitely would've found them funny.

But now wasn't the time for humor.

A split second after Milly had crashed into Ian, Aaron, and Ritsuko, the ground surrounding them suddenly started to rumble hard enough to make it impossible for them to stand. Cracks and deep fissures were already starting to spread quickly over the ground while Victor ran to rejoin the others, his legs pumping as fast as they could to cross the distance in time. He had barely made in time before the earth surrounding them burst in a violent explosion that sent rocks, trees, and soil flying in all directions. Only Ian and Victor dared to watch was happening. They were barely able to see through the haze of airborne dirt, but they were still able to see that sections of stone wall were bursting from the ground by the dozen, surrounding the huddled group piece by piece until everything went black and quiet.

The sound of a torches crackling and the feeling of a cold stone floor were the first things the group noticed after the noise had died down. When they dared to open their eyes again, they saw that they sat in the middle of a stone labyrinth that was lit only by a row of torches on each wall. Not only that, but their current surroundings seemed eerily similar to the picture on Labyrinth Wall's monster card. "Wait a minute…" Ian spoke as he struggled to get up on his feet. It felt like the whole world was spinning like a merry-go-round gone berserk. Once he his head had cleared, he finally took a good long look at their surroundings. "Could this be...? The inside of Labyrinth Wall?"

The words came out as a question, but a certain sinking feeling in his gut told him that he had guessed right. After all, they had already been taken to another dimension, fought in Shadow Duels, and were now being lead by a sadistic psychopath with a Frankenstein complex. Somehow being trapped in a huge and likely deadly labyrinth didn't seem so unbelievable after facing all of that.

Just what else could go wrong today?

Meanwhile, Milly was just opening her eyes to see Victor pulling himself off of her and standing up to dust off his long black coat. The image of him laying on top of her was enough to make her skin crawl, but she was also a tough girl and had decided that she wasn't going to let it freak her out. Not too badly, anyway. "Ow…" she commented before sitting up to glare at Victor. "Was that really necessary?"

He seemed to stare blankly at her for a moment before responding with a simple shrug before continuing to dust off his coat. "I needed to get everyone together and it seemed like pushing you into them was the best idea at the moment."

"Throwing, you mean. Gee, thanks'" muttered the blonde as she pulled herself up to her feet and also started dusting herself off. "I assume you know what happened and why we ended up in a spooky maze?"

"Unfortunately…" Victor sighed. "Although if I'm correct, the next part will probably be worse."

"How come I expected you to say that?" Milly deadpanned before turning to survey the others. Ian was helping Ritsuko up and Aaron was busy covering his face and pounding a nearby wall with his fist.

"Damn it!" he yelled. "I almost had him! He was right there and..."

"Hey Aaron! If that is your real name…" Milly called out to the boy only half-jokingly. She had a hand on her hip as she studied him with an impatiently arched eyebrow. "Get over here so I can slap you. And stop beating yourself up. None of us knew he would do that."

"Actually…" Victor interrupted. "I had considered the idea, but I didn't expect him to go that far. He saves the Labyrinth Wall for games, not battles. I thought he would actually be serious since Aaron posed him a very real threat." His brow furrowed as he dug out his notepad and pen from his coat pocket, his hand already scribbling notes as he looked around their immediate area. "What bothers me is if-"

However, the words he was about to speak went unsaid when he suddenly noticed that a circle of glowing symbols had appeared around the feet of each person. His eyes widened in surprise when he saw them, but then they narrowed in anger when they started to rise and travel along his legs. "Bloody frickin' no!" Victor exclaimed angrily as he snapped his fingers. The circle of symbols around his legs shattered with the action and faded away into flickering motes of light.

The students were not so quick however, and could only stand paralyzed in shock as the rings surrounding them rose off the ground and traveled over each of their bodies. A tingling sensation like a mild electric current was running over their skin filled their senses, spreading higher along their bodies as the rings continued to rise. "What's happening!?" Ritsuko managed to scream. Milly, Ian, and Aaron opened their mouths to shout something similar, but they weren't able to make even a single sound. All the four of them could do was stand there and watch in horror as the circle of symbols reached their necks and continued rising over their heads.

Everything went black again after that.

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Milly was the first to open her eyes. At first, the only thing she saw was a haze of colors that made her dizzy and sick to her stomach. "Ooooh…" moaned the blonde miserably, her hand covering her mouth to hold back a wave of nausea. It felt like someone had stuck her head in a paint mixer gone berserk. She was also surprised to realize that she was somehow miraculously still on her feet. A bit wobbly, but she was still standing nonetheless. "W-What just happened?" she asked to no one in particular while she steadied herself with a hand against the wall. "God, I feel like I'm going to throw up…"

However, that was when the sound of somebody snickering behind her back caught her attention and snapped her back to reality. Her first reaction was to grab the person doing it and smack them silly across the face, but her own dizziness and clouded vision made that impossible. For the moment, anyway. The best she could do was squint and try to peer through the colorful haze, although she already had a good guess about who was crazy enough to laugh at a time like this. Her glare settled on Victor once her vision had finally cleared. "What just happened?" Milly repeated to him, a rush of indignant anger making her square herself up to him with her hands on her hips.

The only response Victor gave at first was another round of muffled snickering that he covered up with a hand. Tears were already forming behind his wire-rim spectacles, his face turning red from trying to keep his growing laughter suppressed. "Have you seen wha-…!?" he began before another snicker fit cut him off. "Just lo-…! Just look-…! Oh Gods, I can't take it!" he exclaimed when he finally lost control of himself. After that, the most he could do was point a finger at Milly and then down at the floor before he doubled over in a fit of uproarious laughter. You'd think he was about to fall over and die because he was laughing so hard.

Naturally, that only made Milly even angrier with Victor. "WHAT is your problem!?" the girl exclaimed. "In case you haven't noticed, this isn't the time to be laughing! Now get your head out of your ass and do something use-…."

That was when she felt something fluffy brushing against her legs.

With a startled gasp, Milly looked down at her feet and saw what it was that Victor was laughing about. Her outfit had changed from her usual fashionable Obelisk Blue girls' uniform to a big poofy pink dress that was covered in frills and ribbons, complete with soft pink slippers on her feet and a big pink bow in her hair. Her face scrunched in disgust when she reached up and felt it there. She also noticed that a red and white lollipop the size of a halberd was lying on the floor by her feet.

There was no doubt in her mind now. This was Lollipop Lady's dress straight from her card, but why was Milly the one wearing it? "Oh no… No no no no…." she muttered with an expression like she swallowed something foul. "I am way too sane for cosplay. And I hate bows in my hair!" she screeched as she reached up and ripped the foul thing out of her hair. "Where did this outfit come from!?"

"It's too late for that," she heard Aaron mutter sourly. She was about to turn to him and reply with an equally sour retort, but then she stopped in mid-sentence and gawked when she saw what had happened to him. He was leaning against a wall with his arms folded over his chest, but his makeshift traveler's outfit that had already replaced his Slifer Red uniform had been transformed into the same green armor that she had seen the samurai Nisashi wearing only a short time ago. For a moment there, she was even convinced he was Nisashi. He even had the samurai's signature katana and wakizashi with him, both of which were sheathed at his right hip. "Seems we all got hit with...whatever that was," the boy muttered again.

"Just great…" Milly grumbled while casting a baleful glare at Victor. It figured that he would be the only one to have his appearance unchanged by whatever it was that did this. But then another thought occurred to her and she started looking around the corridor as if looking for someone. Aaron and Victor were already accounted for, but Ian and Ritsuko weren't anywhere in sight. "Hey, where's Ritsuko? And Ian…?"

"I'm down here," grumbled a voice from near her feet. Looking down, Milly just about let out a shriek when she saw what the voice had belonged to. It was an old wooden puppet that sat propped up against a wall. And it looked an awful lot like Ian, too. The thing's head was enormous compared to the small body it was attached to and had a mouth that was little more than a hinge attached at the back like a nutcracker's. It was topped by a mop of Ian's messy black hair and had glasses that were exactly like Ian's real ones. Even the disgruntled stare in its eyes was the same as Ian's! Bits of string had been tied to the puppet's hands and feet and laid uselessly at its sides like cobwebs. The Ian puppet seemed to frown before his wooden mouth opened to speak. "This is pathetic, I can't even move except to talk."

"That's the problem with being a puppet. You can't ever seem to hold yourself up." Victor chuckled from the wall he had been leaning on. He then sighed lightly and adjusted his spectacles up along the bridge of his nose, which was a sure sign that the man was annoyed. "It seems like that bugger is up to his usual tricks. What a mess you've all caused me..."

Milly could only stare at Victor for a moment in disgust before yet another realization struck her. Ritsuko was still missing. "Ritsuko? Where are you?" she called out with her hands cupping her mouth. "Great, if I lose her now, what is she going to do? She's helpless on her own." It was at that moment when she felt something else brush against her leg and she looked down to see what it was. It was a small black kitten that was pawing at the edge of her dress and mewling with fear. It was also covered in stripes like a tiger's and it also had a pair of scar-like markings across the left eye.

"Oh, you're kidding me, right!?" Milly cried out in disbelief.

Ritsuko replied with a little meow. "I can't believe this!" she thought, her mind almost in a panic that made her tiny heart race. "I'm a cat. A little kitty! And not just any kitty, but Black Tiger LV 2! Help me, Milly!" Outwardly, she couldn't do anything but sit there and paw at Milly.

"Oh dear…" Milly moaned as she scooped up Ian and Ritsuko. "What am I going to do with you two, huh?" Turning her attention back to Victor, she simply stood there and glared daggers at him straight for his heart. She noted that Ritsuko's Duel Disk and deck box were laying off to the side, as well. "I'll assume you knew this would happen as well, didn't you?"

"You don't look very intimidating in a dress," Victor chuckled as he pushed himself off against the wall. "Holding a doll and a kitten don't help that image."

"Hey," Ian interrupted, "I am not a doll."

"That's not the point," Milly continued, "You...knew...this...would happen. Correct?"

Victor sighed and pocketed his hands, turning to survey the hall they were in. "Yes, I knew Copycat would try this the moment he summoned Labyrinth. It's why I tried to keep everyone together. People handle things better when they're together, and those two there would be in serious danger, Ian especially." Victor explained. For once, he actually seemed quite serious about their predicament. "He certainly has much more to fear than dust bunnies at any rate."

"Wait," Milly argued, "Are you saying we're in danger?"

"Why yes," Victor nodded, "Very much so. You don't think this is an empty labyrinth, do you?"

Milly couldn't help but stand there and look at Victor in shock. It took her several moments before she could recompose herself. "Is there nothing that ruffles you, Victor? You seem to expect everything, and react to nothing. Personally, I think you should've let that glow or whatever it is turn you into a Stitched….whatever. Then you'd at least look the same on the outside as you are on the outside."

Victor feigned a look of shock and placed a hand over his heart. "Ouch, I'm hurt." He grinned. "Okay, I'm kidding, but seriously, bravo on the attempt. I will admit that perhaps I should've warned you all, but it would've done little except incite panic. But now, we have to get out of here."

"How do we do that!?" Milly exclaimed, "Only three of us are still normal size, one can't move, and the other is a frickin' kitten!" As if to emphasize her point, she jostled Ian and Ritsuko, who were both still sitting in her arms.

"Yeah," Ian grumbled, "there's not much I can do from here except comment on how pink Milly's dress is."

Milly looked down at Ian and growled. "Don't push me, puppet boy."

"Meh," Ian mused with a slight tilt of his huge wooden head, "From the way I'm looking at things, you can't make them much worse for me."

"I wonder how things will look when you're hanging upside-down."

"Okay, point to you." Ian turned his head away and shut his mouth.

A noise from down the hall attracted everyone's attention before Milly could continue. "I...I think we should get moving," Aaron commented as he moved away from his wall and put a hand on one of his two swords. "Whatever that was, it sounded nasty...and close."

"Don't even get me started on you, samurai boy!" Milly growled to him before straightening up. "Unfortunately, the new Aaron here is right, which means Victor is also right. Bleh, whatever, but alas we should be moving." She squared herself to Victor once again and threw her head back to get some hair out of her face. "Well, where does our brilliant tactician think we should go?" she asked sarcastically.

Instead of replying, Victor sat down and crossed his legs. Putting his arms in his lap, he clapped his hands together and set his chin in them before closing his eyes in thought. After several moments, when Milly was almost ready to toss kick him in the back of the head, he opened his eyes again and stood up rather suddenly. "Let's get going down this hall. We'll keep to the right for a while to start with." Not waiting for a response, he stepped ahead and quickly moved past Milly and Aaron into the darkness ahead. But not before scooping up Ian and Ritsuko's Duel Disks and deck boxes and stashing them into the infinite number of pockets inside of his coat.

"Hmph," Milly huffed and turned to Aaron. "You heard him, let's go. Here, carry this." Not giving Aaron a chance to respond, she tossed him Ian.

"Whoa!" the puppet cried just before Aaron had caught him. "Be careful with me. I'm pretty sure it'd hurt if I was dropped."

"Oh, Ian, calm down. I'm sure Aaron is capable of catching you easily enough," she assured before reaching down to retrieve the giant lollipop lying at her feet. "Wow, it's really...light. Almost like it's make of cotton candy instead of hard candy," she thought with no small amount of amazement.She then shifted Ritsuko into the crook of one arm and hefted the massive sucker over one shoulder. "What? I might need this." she explained when she noticed the stares she caught from the others.

"While we're in here," Ian commented quietly to Aaron, "remind me not to upset her."

"Ditto," Aaron replied back with a dumb look on his face.

"Hey back there!" Milly called back. "Hurry up."

Aaron seemed to jump a little at Milly's voice and then he picked up his pace to rejoin the other two on foot. Ritsuko was still nestled in the crook of Milly's arm, barely noticeable behind the frills. "Yech, I hate this dress. Waaay too many frills. It's not a bad shade of pink though." Seeing Aaron's only response being a raised eyebrow in question, she continued on with a light sigh. "Eh, but oh wells. Say, never got around to asking, but I think it's worth mentioning. Now… You said you've been here for six months, right?"

Aaron sighed and sagged a little. "Yes, so it would seem. Don't remind me."

"Sorry…" Milly replied back softly. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. I was just getting my story straight. If you want, I could just stop now."

"Really?"

Milly looked up in thought as she continued walking, then quickly shook her head side to side. "Nope. I want to know, and sorry for being so blunt, but you really should tell us all of the details."

"She has a point," Victor called back. He stopped them momentarily at an intersection before choosing a path to the right.

"Okay." Milly commented, "maybe I'm wrong. If Victor is agreeing, I know there's something wrong here."

"No, I should really get this out there. I guess you guys have a right to know."

"Only if you insist," Milly replied. "A part of me really doesn't want to push you into talking about it," she said while biting her lip, "but the other part really can't figure out how six months could go by for you while only so little went by for us."

"I can answer that," Victor interrupted. Not even bothering to turn and face them, he continued pace as he explained. "You see, sometimes the Duel Monsters realm messes up, so to speak, in a chronological sense. What that means is that sometimes a year in the Human World can go by and not even a day passes in this world. Likewise, a week in your world could become several months in this world. It's a sputter that hasn't quite been quantified or exactified, so we don't know when or how long any effects like this would happen. Why, right now the Human World could be flying by, and we won't get back until several decades have gone by."

"You're kidding, right?" Milly questioned.

"No," Victor deadpanned, "Why…. We could finish this up and send you all back right now, and everyone back at home could be doing some silly fad like…. I don't know, dueling on motorcycles or some such nonsense." He paused as if to think about his words. "Sorry, that was a bad example. I meant to go for something that would signify an advance in technology."

"Riiiight," Ian commented, "and you planned on telling us this...when?"

"On…. Not likely, actually," Victor explained, "the worlds have been running rather stable side by side for some time, so I thought it wouldn't need to be brought up. I guess I was wrong."

"Surprise, surprise…" Milly sniped.

"Now, now," Victor chuckled again, "no need to get angry. I'm sure if was a freak accident."

"Tell that to the guy who lost six months," Aaron muttered bitterly.

That was enough to make Victor suddenly stop and glare at Aaron heatedly over one shoulder. "Now see here," Victor shot back as he fully turned to stare down Aaron. "I have half a mind to-" But then, he was interrupted by a section of wall that had suddenly exploded with a terrific boom, sending brick and mortar everywhere. "Yeah…" He called out to whatever had wrecked the wall, throwing one arm up to ward off the dust, "That's uncalled for. But at least we found you."

"Found who?" Aaron called out, his own arm shielding his eyes from the falling dust.

"Who else?" Victor laughed as he back to where the explosion had come from. The dust was beginning to settle and had revealed a rather large and deep hole in the wall. In it sat a huge, mechanical spider with massive missile batteries mounted on its backside. It was clacking mechanical scissor-like jaws as it lifted one massive foot outside of the hole and stared at Victor with eight eyes that gleamed like rubies. "This is the Launcher Spider," he explained. "It's the first of the three guardians we have to fight to get out of here."

"Fight!?" Ian spat from his seat on Aaron's arm. "How are we going to fight that thing!?"

Victor smiled and seemed about to respond with his usual wit and sarcasm, but then Aaron stepped forward and waved him off. He tossed Ian back to Milly, which brought out another loud protest from Ian, and then narrowed his eyes at the Launcher Spider from beneath the brim of his samurai helm.

"Like this," he muttered to Ian while drawing the katana sheathed at his hip.