CROSSOVERS

Chapter 24: The Machine King

The next thing I knew I was facing Bandit Keith, the Continental Champion of North America, in the dueling arena. The high altitude made me feel a bit dizzy, I was used to sea level California air. Lucky for me the cool air helped to sharpen my senses. There was no way I was going to let some atmospheric conditions keep me from winning this duel!

Yami and the gang were watching from below to my right, and looked up at me with concerned eyes. On my left was Mokuba and Seto, both looked serious. Mokuba, I knew, was emulating his older brother and I grinned. Mai gave me a thumbs up and I waved at her. Marik was no where in sight, neither was Ishizu.

"Duel Five of the Battle City Tournament will now commence!" the referee called from the sidelines.

"Scared?" my opponent mocked as he activated his dueling disk. I thought of the strategy Mai and I had planned and smiled. "Nope."

"We'll see," Keith said, then he paused and said seriously, "May the best American win."

"I'll be sure to," I said, and drew my first five cards. Wingweaver looked up at me with a reassuring gaze, along with Monster Reborn and three other monster cards. I smiled – this was just what I needed to start out the duel. "I'll go first! I place one card face down, then I play Exchange! Okay Keith, let's see what you got."

Keith grumbled for a moment, then reluctantly walked out the the middle of the dueling arena where I met him. The magic card Exchange allowed me to choose one of Keith's cards from his hand and for him to choose one of mine in return. As the title said, it was an exchange. I was hoping something in this hand could help me take a few chunks out of his life points.

I could barely contain my glee when I saw Machine King in his hand. His most powerful machine – right there for the taking! I couldn't believe my luck. I quickly plucked it out of his hand. "I'll take that."

Keith growled and then snatched Wingweaver out of my hand. He snarled, "And I'll take that."

We glared at each other for a moment then returned to our spots. I couldn't help but feel ruffled. Keith now had my most powerful monster, my favorite monster. Then again, I had his favorite machine so I guess we were even.

"Alright," I began, looking at my cards carefully. Machine King was a level eight monster, I would have to sacrifice two monsters to bring it onto the field. Or, at least, that was the normal way to go about it. "I'll place one more card face down and active Card Destruction, my first face-down card!"

Keith looked at me, amused, as we both disposed of our hands and drew new cards. "Well, that was a waste. You just destroyed your only machine card. Do you even know what you're doing with that magic card?" He laughed.

I smirked, "Ever heard of a strategy before? I activate Monster Reborn to bring back Machine King – and with his 2200 attack points, you're going to be toast!" The Machine King shimmered into existence on my side of the field. Now every time Keith played one of his machine monsters my Machine King would gain 100 attack points! "Your turn."

Keith glared at me for a moment, then his body stiffened. Surprised, I started to ask him what was wrong until he quickly drew a card from his deck. He looked sick for a moment, but then his grim expression vanished. He said, "I play Jinzo #7 in attack mode and place three cards face down. Then I end my turn." Jinzo #7 materialized somewhat lazily onto the field. It only had 500 attack points to speak of, Keith had to be luring me into a trap.

"Hold on to your bandana!" I called and drew from my deck. I almost laughed aloud when I saw the card Remove Trap in my hand. "I play Red Archery Girl in attack mode, then I play the magic card Remove Trap!" I watched with satisfaction as an iron jaw smashed one of Keith's face down cards in two. It exploded into a million pieces like glass. I raised my hand, "Red Archery Girl, attack his Jinzo!"

"Not so fast!" Keith shouted. "You've activated my other face down card! Bulletproof!" The attack from my Red Archery Girl flew harmless by his Jinzo and Keith continued, "Don't even bother trying to attack with my Machine King, Bulletproof makes my monsters impervious to all attacks for one entire turn. Sorry" – Keith smiled at me – "but no dice."

"Isn't that my line?" Duke asked loudly. Keith ignored him.

"But your attack didn't just activate Bulletproof," Keith went on. "It also activated my Rare Metalmorph!"

"Erm... that's nice," I said, trying to look cool. What on earth was a Metalmorph?

"It's a trap!" Keith shouted at me. I blinked, "What?"

"Well," he grinned. "Judging by your stupefied expression, I assume you don't know what my card is. It's a Permanent Trap, and it increases the attack strength of my Jinzo #7 by 500." I narrowed my eyes, what could he be up to?

"And I care because why?" I demanded hotly. "In case you haven't noticed, that card only raised your Jinzo's attack points to 1000. And that's nothing compared to my monsters. The only thing you managed to do is postpone my Machine King's attack, big-whoop. I end my turn." Keith raised an eyebrow, but didn't respond.

"Alright, Elaine!" Keith snapped, "Let me show you how a real duelist plays!" He drew a card. "First, I summon Mechanical Chaser to the field in attack mode – Now, Jinzo #7, attack!" Mechanical Chaser, with it's 1850 attack points, was a threat to me and could easily take out Red Archery Girl. So why was Keith attacking me with Jinzo?

Jinzo launched across the field. I rolled my eyes and said with annoyance, "Are you deaf? Your Jinzo only has 1000 – UMPH!" I was thrown back as Jinzo rammed me in the chest.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Keith said. "Did I forget to mention Jinzo can attack your life points directly?"

I rubbed my stomach and watched as my life points drop to 3000.

"Watch yourself, Elaine," Yami called from my right. I nodded to show I heard him, but other than that I was too embarrassed to speak. Keith had known what he was doing all along.

"Mechanical Chaser!" Keith said loudly, "Destroy her Red Archery Girl, pronto!"

My Red Archery Girl disintegrated under Mechanical Chaser's attack with a wail and my life points dropped to 2550. Keith's life points still remained at 4000.

On that note, Keith ended his turn and I drew my next card. I had thought, by taking his Machine King, I'd be able to eat away at his life points and psych him out at the same time – but it didn't even seem to phase him!

And – hey! I had the most powerful monster on the field! Wasn't I supposed to be kicking his butt?

"I place two cards face down," I said, thinking defensively, and stuck the cards into the slots of my dueling disk. Now that the duel was moving into second and third rounds, Keith was beginning to draw into the more powerful monsters of his deck – I had to take him out fast!

"I activate Malevolent Nuzzler and Reverse Trap!" I declared, flipping over my face down cards. Machine King's attack strenght rose 700 and was now standing tall with a total of 3100 ATK. I continued, "And because Reverse Trap reverses all the increases to attack and defense points of my opponent, your Jinzo's attack strenght falls to zero!"

"Machine King attack his Jinzo #7!" I cried. Jinzo exploded, and the force knocked Keith back several feet. His life points were now down to 900, and he finally looked rattled. I grinned – it wouldn't be long now, this duel was in the bag! I folded my arms and said, "How do you like the taste of your own monster, machine-boy?"

"Awesome move, Elaine!" I heard Mokuba shout. The gang cheered and I heard Mai laughing – probably at the now seething expression on Keith's face.

"So Keith," I said causally. "Scared yet?"

Keith's eyes flashed through his sunglasses, "No – but you will be soon."

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Mokuba watched Bandit Keith warily, even though Elaine had just wiped out most of his life points with a perfectly executed Magic Combo. Mokuba said softly, "He's really confident." He turned to his brother for some reassurance.

"Remember Mokuba, duels are 85 psychological and only 15 physical. Howard is using his attitude to psych Elaine out – see how he stands?" Kaiba asked, teaching.

"No, I don't mean-" Mokuba started, "Well, yes, I see how he's standing – but, I think something's wrong."

His older brother folded his arms thoughtfully. After a moment Kaiba narrowed his eyes, then suddenly he turned on his heel and his coat snapped out behind him. Mokuba blinked in surprise. "Seto?"

"I'll be back, Mokuba," Kaiba said over his shoulder. He walked into the elevator and disappeared from sight as the doors closed. Mokuba turned back to the duel, what had his brother seen that he hadn't?

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"Alright," Keith said. "Now I use my Ultimate Offering card to summon two monsters to the field." As he said this his life points dropped to 450 and two machine monster appeared. "Then I'll sacrifice them to bring out the monster that will destroy you! Perfect Machine King!"

Perfect Machine King? I thought. This couldn't be good. How many Machine Kings were there?

"Unlike your weaker King," Keith explained. "My Perfect Machine King has the starting attack points of 2700, and for every monster card on the field – it gets an extra 500!"

I felt my blood freeze. His Perfect Machine King had 3200ATK, enough to put me out of the duel! If Keith managed to destroy my Machine King I'd never be able to summon a monster strong enough to challenge his great machine, much less destroy it. I knew Yami had taught me never to put too much faith in one card – but, at the moment, it looked like Keith and I were going for the ultimate show down. Machine King vs. Machine King.

"So, whose scared?" Keith asked mockingly. Mai shouted from below me, "Just keep your cool!"

I closed my eyes and concentrated. I slowly put my hand over my deck to draw a card. I whispered, "I could use a little help..."

Keith tapped his foot, "Are you going to draw your next card or not?"

I drew and almost laughed aloud. This was just what I needed to wipe out the rest of Keith's pathetic 450 LP! In my hand was a card Mai had given me especially for this duel.

"Say goodbye to your monster, Keith, because I play Riryoku!" I shouted. "For this turn I can decrease your monster's attack points by half, and then add them to my own monster's! Now – Machine King attack and destroy his Perfect Machine King!" Machine King now had an attack strenght of 4600 – not even an Ultimate Blue Eyes White Dragon could stand up against it!

My Machine King took several large steps in Keith's direction – then stopped short. Suddenly the Machine King exploded and I was thrown back by the wave of air. I blanched, "What did you do?"

"You activated my trap, Industrial Revolution," Keith leaned back on the railing behind him and smirked. I growled, "And what exactly does that do?"

"Industrial Revolution allows me to target one of your monsters to be destroyed, but the best part is the monster's total number of attack points are added directly to my life points, which means mine are now 5050," Keith stood back, observing my shocked face with grim satisfaction. "And you walked right into it with your Riryoku – I must say, that worked out perfectly."

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If you Review maybe I'll update and show you what happens next...
"Machine King" – after this duel I never want to write those words again! Argh!

I realize the picture of Elaine wasn't what most of you were thinking – but then again, I never really did give you guys a detailed description of her. I did that on purpose. I like people to form their own idea of the character's physical appearance. I figured that by now, so late in the story, it wouldn't ruin your own mental image if I showed you what I saw.

Just curious – but how do you guys imagine her?

Wolfdemonness: CONGRADULATIONS! You're Crossover's 100th Reviewer!
Yea! 100 reviews! Let's party! -starts break dancing- PARTAY! -notices no one else is break dancing- What's wrong with you people? And why are you staring at me?
In honor of being the 100th Reviewer I will now shower you, Wolfy, with chocolates, a random assortment of candies, and sugar cubes – because you can't have a party without sugar cubes.
See! I'm not ignoring you! I just gave you a party! Don't worry about your last review sounding mad... you always sound mad. ;)

Juel Haruna: Yep – I'm proud to say I drew that. It's the first piece of anime I've ever tried, I was surprised how well it came out. Keith Howard is actually his real name – I know, it seems a bit plain for him... Keep the Reviews coming. :D

panmotto: I hope Elaine wins against Keith too, though I doesn't look like she's off to a good start... What? Did you think I'd actually tell you what happens? NEVER!

Atem's Queen of the Nile: Now that I think of it, I can see her with blue hair... I hope the soundtrack idea helps. I use Van Helsing music, myself. Especially "Journey to Translavania."

Jennifer: That's for the compliments. :)

person: I update once a week! Isn't that fast enough for you? My fingers... their tips are bleeding... ahh! Glad you like this so far. If you any ideas or suggestions I'd love to hear them.

teenyugiohpotterphantom: Serenity still has her bandages on, I think. Erm... you can still have 'wide eyes' underneath the bandages...? Nevermind - lol
As a new reviewer, tell me, is this too long of a story? Sometimes I feel like it's dragging on forever and ever...
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