Animaniacs 5D's – Negative World Race
Episode 14 – Quoth the Raven
Yakko: Now let's get up to speed with Animaniacs 5D's!
Yusei: Hey, that's my line!
"I'm feeling like an adventure! Let's go that way and see where it leads!" Lenore said. "Just this once, then we go back to the hospital!" Draco began to argue.
"You see!?" Sonia called out, "The only way to get what you want is to take what you want! And I want this victory!" Draco growled as his Arc-Dragon Skytear shattered, and he lost 500 LP, "You believe that you're entitled to just about everything. So without regard to who you're hurting, you just take it!" he shouted. "And what's so wrong with believing that truth?" Sonia asked. "Because it's a lie!" Draco told her, causing her to glance at him in shock, "I learned that in order to gain what you want, you have to earn it!"
"You belittled me every day!" he said getting Sonia to look at him. "You told me nothing but hateful words. Never once did you try and save me from the fights your brothers wanted to pick with me! You encouraged them! This is your punishment, this is what you earned by taking what you want and giving nothing back! Platinum Arc-Dragon, Evalion, PLATINUM BLAST!" She screamed out as her LP fell again.
When she let go, the picture moved up, sliding like it was on a spring or something, revealing a small hidden shrine holding a deck of cards. "What the…?" she asked and reached for it. She was quickly pushed away by someone, and looked up to see a boy reach in and grab the deck that had been in the middle. "At last!" he said, "The Ravensong's secrets are mine!"
"My Nevermore Falcon can remove your monster from play when it's summoned!" Poe shouted. 'Almost all of my trap and spell cards require me to have a Raven monster out, and if he keeps sending them out of play, I'm the one who's going to stay in this dark pit!' Lenore thought to herself as she raced alongside him.
[Cue Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's opening theme]
'Just great, I finally get to Turbo Duel, and I need to face a power far beyond my own.' Lenore thought to herself, 'This deck, why would he want this deck? So far he just threw his card away so that he could send mine out of…' Suddenly something hit her, a strategy that she hadn't thought of before, 'Wait, what if the cards of that deck are centered around cards that have been thrown out of play?' she asked herself, 'Then the number of cards out of play would have a drastic effect on the cards he has on the field!' She looked back to her own deck of cards, 'And my Raven's aren't equipped for a strategy like that! The only thing I can do is hold out until the end!' She quickly pulled one card from her deck, starting her turn and gaining a speed counter, "My draw! I summon 'Raven Knight' in attack mode!" The monster that appeared was draped in the feathers of a raven, his helmet adorned with the much larger feathers and his sword decorated with the claws. The stats that appeared showed the monster to be level 3 with 2000 ATK and 300 DEF, "Now, attack with Nightmare Blade!" she called out as her monster bent his legs, jumping up into the air and turning to dive bomb with the tip pointed towards her opponent, "I use the 'Shadow in the Storm' trap card!" he shouted, "Not only does this card negate your attack, but I can special summon a 'Nevermore' monster straight from my hand, so I summon the 'Nevermore Owl'!" [Nevermore Owl is a level 2, DARK type Winged-beast monster with 800 ATK and 1200 DEF. At the end phase of the turn this monster was special summoned, select one monster on your opponent's field, this monster and the selected monster are both banished from the game.]
'Better make this count!' she thought to herself, "I activate my Hatchling's Song trap card!" [Hatchling's song is a trap card you may activate only if you control a 'Raven monster, search your deck for another 'Raven' monster of the same level and special summon it to the field.] "I use this trap card to special summon my Sorcerer Raven from my deck. Next I can use the two of them to Synchro summon!" she called out, and the two monsters raced forward, "Beauty swirls in the skies of the night, raining mystery and fear onto the world, I synchro summon, 'Razorclaw Raven'!" [Razorclaw Raven is a level 6, WIND attribute, Winged-Beast type monster with 2400 ATK and 1200 DEF.] "Next I activate my 'Shield Melody' trap card and equip it to my Razorclaw Raven! This prevents you from selecting my Raven as a target for any card ability you can think of!" Poe growled as they rounded a sharp turn, glaring at the now golden aura that surrounded her bird, "Next I'll activate my final trap card, 'Raven's Treasure box' to let me draw one card for every 'Raven' monster I have in my graveyard. Then I play one card face-down and end my turn!" she said and his owl faded away.
"Fine, my draw!" Poe shouted as he pulled the top card from his deck, "First, thanks to my three speed counters, I can use the speed spell 'Perched on the Chamber Door' from my hand!" The card that appeared had the picture of a black raven with glowing red eyes sitting on the head of a bust statue that was mounted above a door, it glared at a man whose arm was the only thing showing, his ornate robe covering from his elbow to his wrist. "This card forces you to discard cards from your deck equal to the number of cards I have banished!" he told her, "That makes two!" Lenore growled as she lifted the top two cards from her deck and glanced at them, 'No!" she said as she looked to them, 'Raven Shadow and Twilight Raven!' She slowly placed them on her graveyard slot and watched them slide into the machine, "Next it lets you special summon a monster from your hand with the same number of stars as the number of cards you just threw away." Poe said as he smiled. Lenore looked to her hand, 'No!" she said to herself as she picked up the only card she could, "I summon, Twister Raven!" she called out reluctantly. The green raven almost immediately began spinning around in circles, creating a tornado that shattered every spell and trap card on the field. "Great, the one monster I didn't want to summon is the only one I can summon!" she said to herself as the bird's stats appeared, level 2 with 400 ATK and 1000 DEF. "Oh, too bad!" Poe teased as he grabbed another card from his hand, "I use the speed spell, 'Curse of the Raven'." {Curse of the Raven is a speed spell that can only be used if you have three speed counters, remove two speed counters from your side of the field and remove all cards in your opponent's graveyard from play.] "Now, by removing two of my speed counters, I can force you to empty your graveyard!" he shouted and her entire graveyard was pulled from the disk, "Oh no!" she said as she picked them up and slipped them into her pocket. "HAHAHAHAHAH!" Poe laughed as he raced alongside her, "This is incredible! The power this deck holds! It's unbelievable! I bet I could even defeat O-Kay with this deck!"
"So I take it that there are some real problems in that group!" Lenore shouted. "O-Kay is a fool for having underestimated me. I was supposed to keep an eye on Draco's siblings to make sure they didn't get out of control, but instead I found out the power of your family, the birthright you inherited as the last living Ravensong!"
"And what do you plan on doing with it?" she asked. "First I'll send you and that annoying girl Sonia to the shadows, and then maybe I'll destroy your boyfriend and his friends. Then I'll destroy Yakko, and after that, O-Kay and his siblings! Yes! I'll be the most powerful duelist in the world. Even Yusei Fudo will bow before me as I rise to the throne!" he ranted as they raced through the darkness. 'He's insane!' she said to herself, 'I have to stop him before he hurts someone else!'
"I summon my 'Nevermore Carrion' in attack mode!" Poe shouted as he slapped the card onto his disk. [Nevermore Carrion is a level 4, DARK, Winged-Beast monster with 1800 ATK and 1400 DEF. Once during the duel, you may banish one of your opponent's monsters when this card is summoned.] Lenore let her eyes open wide as the carrion bird opened its beak, letting a black mist spew out and engulf her Razorclaw Raven. When the mist dispersed, her monster was gone. "NO!" she shouted, "MY synchro summon!"
"And that's not all, I attack with Ether Wing!" Poe shouted, and the bird opened its wings wide, letting the shadows rain down on top of both Lenore and her last Raven monster, shattering the green raven and dropping her LP by 1400. Lenore swerved a bit as she found herself falling behind, her eyes getting ready to shut from the pain that surged through her, "Oh, did I mention that every monster destroyed by my Carrion is banished?" Poe taunted as they both took a sharp turn. 'I can make it, I have to.' she thought to herself as she raced forward, 'Draco want' me to get stronger, at first I thought it was to keep up with him, but now I see, it was so I could protect myself. I have to keep going, like…like…' Lenore let herself remember the face of Lillian, the toon girl that beat her so many times, and yet somehow found each other as friends by the end of one celebration, one heck of a celebration, 'Like her!' she said to herself, 'Like Lillian. She learned how to push past the hard parts, I can to. She's my rival, and I have to stay as strong as she is if I want to beat her!' Lenore opened her eyes, forcing herself to focus on the road and her opponent, "I then lay one card face down and call it a turn!" Poe called out.
Lenore drew her card, 'At least it'll keep me alive for one more turn!' she thought to herself, "I summon 'Dimension Raven' in attack mode. [Dimension Raven is a level 3 DARK attribute, Winged-Beast type monster with 800 ATK and 1300 DEF.] "Next I use the speed spell, Sunburst Melody. This lets me deal 600 points of damage to you for every Speed Counter I sacrifice, and I sacrifice all of them!" Lenore shouted, and the spell card shined, letting the light slam into him and drop his LP to 2200. He quickly growled at her, glaring angrily as he looked into his mirror at her "You. How could tiny insignificant creature like you sully my perfect victory?" he asked, "I'll make you pay for this, I'll clip your wings! LITTLE RAVEN!"
"Stop calling me that!" Lenore shouted at him. "Absolutely not!" Poe shouted, "I refuse to acknowledge that the power was supposed to be given to your family, I worked hard to find it, and it shall be me who takes command of existence. I draw and activate the speed spell 'Haunting Memories'! This lets me remove your monster from play!" Lenore watched as her monster vanished into dust, "My Dimension Raven lets me special summon one level 1 'Raven' Monster from my hand into attack mode, and I use the Sunburst Raven." [Sunburst Raven is a level 1 FIRE attribute Winged-Beast type monster with 200 ATK and 600 DEF. When this monster is summoned, reveal all face down cards your opponent controls.] Poe's face-down appeared behind him, and lifted up, showing her the trap card 'Madness Delivered'. 'NO!' she thought in alarm, 'That card is going to destroy any trap cards I place down, now how do I keep my life points from disappearing?'
"I attack your raven with my Carrion!" Poe shouted and the bird once again spread its wings, letting the shadows engulf the other bird until it was destroyed. "GYAAAAAAAAA!" Lenore shouted as her LP dropped to 200. "GYAAAAAAHAHAHAH!" Poe laughed, "One more turn, all you bought was one more turn! It's time little raven, it's time for you to be swallowed by the shadows!"
"Please…" she whispered as she looked to her deck, her eyes struggling to stay open as the pain raced through her body as quickly as her duel could move, "Lillian asked for help from her cards, and now, I'm going to ask…no…I'm going to plead…pray. I need your help! Please, help me in this duel!" She slowly pulled the top card from her deck, and pushed it to the side, extending her arm out as far as it could go, keeping the back to her opponent and herself. Poe smiled brightly as he watched her card slowly turn, "There isn't a card in your deck that can save…" he began, and stopped when he saw a card that he thought she'd never have, the Nevermore Raven. "WHAT!?" he shouted in surprise, "BUT THAT CARD BELONGS WITH ME. WHY ISN'T IT IN MY DECK?"
Lenore brought the card to her, spying the familiar red eyes of the bird in the picture, accompanied with the shiny black wings and glimmering talons. This was the card she remembered finding in the broken picture frame of her great grandfather. "Great Grandpa!" she said in surprise, and then relaxed, letting herself smile as she slapped the card down, "I summon the 'Nevermore Raven'!" she called out, bringing the bird out to the field. It screeched out loud, its call shaking the very foundation of the track. [Nevermore Raven is a level 4, DARK attribute, Winged-Beast type monster with 1300 ATK and 1000 DEF. This monster cannot be banished from the game.] "This isn't possible! Unless…" Poe shouted and turned to the deck in his disk, "The survivor, he took the card from the deck!" He let the information settle in a bit before leaning back in shock, "The deck is incomplete!"
"MY Nevermore Raven has a unique special ability that I never really understood until now, it increases in ATK for every monster that was thrown out of play by 300!" Lenore shouted as the raven grew, and grew and grew. When it stopped, the ATK was now 3000. "ENG, that's not possible!" Poe shouted. "This is what you built up! This is the strategy you chose! You were never going to control my family's power!" Lenore shouted as she pointed her hand towards him, "ATTACK WITH CRYPTIC WING!" Her raven wrapped its wings around itself, and quickly opened them, stretching itself out as much as it could and crying out in triumph as the dark energy erupted from inside its feathers. "NO! THIS DECK CANNOT BE BEATEN. NOT BY A LITTLE RAVEN LIKE YOU!"he shouted as he carrion bird was quickly engulfed and shattered, the remainder of the power surrounding him in a blast, "ERRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" he shouted as he LP quickly dropped to 0. The dash on his runner switched to a red screen that had a white X in the middle, and he could only watch as the darkness surrounded him.
Lenore raced up to him, skidding to a stop and reaching into his runner, practically ripping the disk from the console. She quickly grabbed the cards from his gauntlet and pushed away from him as he reached for her, "NOOOO!" he shouted as the darkness completely engulfed him, leaving Lenore lying there on the ground of the duel track breathing heavily and hugging the cards she had rescued. She heard the sound of another runner come up behind her, causing her to turn her head, "You alright?" Draco asked, and was surprised to find her holding onto a Duel Disk that had been ripped away from its runner. "Huh?" she asked, and turned to the disk, "It just came off, I swear!" she said as she turned back to him and his sister. He sighed, mostly out of relief, "So what are you going to do now?" he asked. "What happened to Poe?" Sonia asked. Lenore thought about telling her, about what he had said, about what he had done, and about his defeat, "Tell me you beat him so I don't have to date him anymore!" Sonia suddenly said. Lenore sat there, surprise evident on her face as she gazed towards the other girl with a blank dumbfounded expression that mirrored Draco's. "Uh…yes!" was all Lenore could say. "Ho thank goodness!" Sonia said as she rested her head on the back of Draco's runner. "Didn't see that coming." the boy said, and the three of them turned to each other, before belting out laughing.
On the way home, Sonia sat with Lenore, resting her head on the girl's back as they raced down the highway Lenore began thinking, "What's up?" Draco asked. "Remember when you said I needed to be stronger?" Lenore asked. "Yah?" he responded. "I think this is how I'm going to do it!" she said and lifted up the broken duel disk, "As soon as I can get the cards out of here, I can really start to become strong."
"Why not stick with your Ravens?" Draco asked, "They're the ones that won you the duel today." Lenore shook her head, "No!" she said, "It took a Nevermore to beat the Nevermore! I can't risk a duel like that again!" She looked back down to the cards in her disk, the one attached to her wrist, "My Raven's and I have had a tough ride, but I think it's time to let them go free! If the come back then I'll use them again, but until then…" she touched the deck with her other hand, felling something she had never felt before, happiness and freedom of the skies, "They get to enjoy themselves." She moved her hand back to the handle and twisted the throttle, pushing the engine harder and faster, as the three of them made their way towards a large white mansion.
End Episode 14
