It's getting dark so early these days in Canada. Thank you CuddlyChristina and thank you readers.
XXX
"Hey, is there something wrong?" he heard from a distance.
He looked outside his container to see a very shady man talking to a man wearing a rabbit mask...smeared with blood on the ears.
"I...I don't know. Nothing's all that wrong to me." the man with the rabbit mask replied.
"Good. Then use your legs and start hopping somewhere safe. We must be closed until I open you."
Camille wondered where this was going until the police showed up after those two left and Nuo rushed towards them. Since he was a child on a playground-alone-the police officers acted like he was a child lost in the mall.
"Excuse me, young man, but are you looking for your parents?" one of them asked.
"Officers, I saw two suspicious guys here...and if you give me a few minutes I can help you find them."
"Um...sure. Sounds fair enough." the other officer replied.
Camille didn't get to see him doing any investigating. The image just shifted to him finding the hideout where the men were. They had their hands up high and were being pushed away.
"What's going on? What do you want from us?" one asked.
"One of you is guilty of murder. We are taking both of you in for questioning." A police officer with features akin to another police officer Nuo knew Camille didn't said.
They were put into the back of a police car.
Camille's last few seconds experiencing a past from Nuo was the young boy smiling before she returned to their duel.
"Since I haven't normal summoned this turn, I normal summon Dragonmaid Parlor. Her effect, I'll send Dragonmaid Laundry to my graveyard. I end my turn."
Camille drew a card.
"I activated Valhalla Fall of the Fallen. With this card, I special summon Malasyian Skelengal from my hand (900/200)."
Skelengal was a mix of bone and flesh, a female mage of sorts.
"And since it was summoned, I draw a card. If it's a Malasyian monster, I special summon it." Camille drew a card. "And it's another Skelengal. Since Skelengal's effect isn't once per turn, I draw again...and it's another Skelengal-"
Nuo coughed into his arm. "Stacked!"
Camille drew what was her fourth card this turn. "It's a Malasyian but not one that can be special summoned. I tribute all three of my Skelengal to summon Malasyian Slifer the Sky Dragon (?/?)."
Slifer was a large, bluish-white dragon whose wings were a mix of blue and gold.
"Slifer gains 800 ATK for every Malasyian monster in my graveyard. I have eight so Slifer gains 6400 ATK. Slifer, attack his Parlor-"
"Since you entered your battle phase, I return Parlor to my hand to special summon Dragonmaid Tinkhec from my graveyard in defense mode."
Tinkhec appeared, this time with a more vengeful expression on her features.
"Slifer, attack that big red dragon!"
Slifer fired a beam of energy that ripped through Tinkhec. When that beam struck into the dragon, Nuo saw that void again.
Camille was standing at half her age today inside a very secure room, her father wearing an astronaut suit.
"Daddy...?" she could only ask.
He turned around to walk up to a rocket, one completely red and had the insignia of Cosmic Queen on the front. Camille suddenly spoke up.
"Don't go!"
He turned around to rub his child's head. "I'm sorry, my precious daughter...I have to do what's right. I have to know we are not the only ones in this world. But don't cry. If something that happens to me that won't happen to me, your aunt and uncle will take care of you."
With that, he left her alone as he climbed up the ladder to the drivers seat.
Camille just wordlessly looked up at the rocket, her needy eyes looking as though they will tear.
"Three...Two...One...Blast off!"
The rocket fired into space. Camille looked hopeful her father would be alright. The aircraft rose from the ground into the stratosphere, but when it reached top high...
Nuo didn't know, he returned to the duel.
"I end my turn." Camille said.
Nuo wanted to talk to her about this but didn't. He drew for his turn.
"Since it's my Standby phase, I can special summon Totem Dragon from my graveyard."
This prompted Totem Dragon to reappear.
"Although this duel has been fun, it's time to stop playing around and just end it. I activate the spell card Linear Accelerator Cannon. So long as I don't activate any other spell cards this turn, I can tribute one monster and deal you damage equal to half its original ATK points. I tribute Totem Dragon and deal you 200. That's game."
Camille closed her eyes, silently agreeing to Nuo's request, even if she had her HP go down by the exact number.
Camille:0
Nuo was not the hero, so the kids wondered how to react when he won. Rather, Yugi and the others were stunned, as was everyone else.
"Did you kids enjoy the show?" Nuo asked. "You may be more giddy from it, but entertainment is a waste of time. Learn how to be good readers and learn how to write because the world depends on it. Now without further ado, Aethba, take us back home."
"No." Aethba replied.
"What?!" Nuo asked. "Why not?!"
"Let's just say Heaven is a palace and it...is descending. Thank you, you dumb and pompous detective."
Nuo needed to put his ol thinkin' cap just to understand what this god was saying. Turns out he didn't need it when the answer came to him: a literal shining palace was looming in the sky.
"Hey, are you sure we can still find a way out of here?" Yugi asked Nuo, as he and his friends ran up to him.
"He's not taking us back home, tell the parents they need to find a way home. I'll get on that palace." Nuo said.
Yugi was about to stop him from going there when a parent held Yugi by his hand.
"Little boy, where are your parents?" He asked.
"Hey, my friends and I were just attending a convention just so we can find Aethba!" Yugi told him.
"Aethba?" the confused man asked.
"Yugi's a damn high school student. Get your overprotective ass away from him." Nuo said in his crude manner of speech.
The man instantly backed away from Nuo finding out what a crude boy he was. The next thing Nuo did was drag Yugi towards the palace.
"I might need your help."
Yugi and the others turned their attention to Nuo as Yugi asked, "Yes?"
"I'm tired after my duel with Camille. If Aethba requests a challenge, I need you to fight him in my place."
Yugi nodded, as did Jonouchi, Honda and Anzu. "Alright then; we won't let you down, Nuo!" he said.
Meanwhile, some of Nuo's new friends saw the palace.
First was Ruria while doing a song on stage.
When she looked up, her mouth gaped in surprise. Her fellow bandmates also noticed, too, though it didn't get in the way of their performance.
Kaiba watched the palace in the sky through the glass of his office.
'It seems you've made it to the top...literally speaking,' he thought to himself.
The boy from the museum, the kidnappers in jail, the divorced man and woman who both had affairs, all the participants of the tower tournament, even the former KaibaCorp employee... they all saw the palace in the sky.
What none of them saw was Nuo getting on the palace ahead of Yugi, Honda, Jounochi, and Anzu.
It was apparent that the fate of this world was in this boy's hands, and perhaps in the hands of his friends, too.
Meanwhile, Aethba was losing at the source of a power only a palace of heaven could contain.
"All this energy, so much of it that no mortal can lay eyes on."
"How will I be able to outsmart him?" he asked himself.
Aethba rued the gods and the humans. His only side was animals, and from animals was the crucible of spirits and monsters all pertaining to Duel Monsters. But now he had their floors, and was looking at the livelihood of God's insides.
He wanted to test some of it, on the birds flocking around.
A small grin appeared on his face as he looked towards them. At the same time, all the other trapped humans (except for Nuo, Yugi, Jonouchi, Honda and Anzu) were arguing and yelling about escaping.
"I know you're all adamant about being here, but Wars can be won or loss all in the prison room."
"If we need to escape, then the five of us will have to deal with Aethba via duel." Anzu said.
Aethba thought one of his prisoners was Aethba, but it was just another Japanese girl with brown hair. However, he had power and Anzu had brains.
"Your right, if the five of you want to escape you'll need to win through a duel. Look into this energy." Aethba was very seductive in making his prisoners look at the metallic structure holding the small white flakes. But the more they looked, the more their eyes oscillated from their genetic color to pale white. Until, they were so close to drooling mindlessly they were his slaves. "Which one of you wants to fight a detective and his four classmates? Rhetorical question, I pick your decks and opponents for you."
XXX
A house no matter how big or small always had a different structural inside compared to its dilapidated outside look. In Layman's terms, this palace was a maze. There was open gaps in doors with little gaps from each other. To normal high school students this would be confusing, but Nuo was smart enough or lucky enough to lead them through the doors that looked right, and Yugi had tougher puzzles in his, well, puzzle, when he still had it.
"Looks really difficult, right?" Anzu asked.
"Well, we can get through this by sticking together as not just allies, but teammates, too." Nuo reassured her.
Anzu smiled. He was acknowledging her and her friends as actual people. She had no idea in just a short time she would be the first to duel, a non-duelist like her against a non-duelist brainwashed...duelist.
"One if you stay behinds and it won't be Nuo." A voice echoed through the mansion.
Anzu came face to face with a brown haired girl with a grey vest and stripped shirt holding up a duel disk.
"Hello, young lady." the woman said to Anzu.
She nearly flinched by the voice, but her nervousness turned into determination as she too brought out her duel disk.
"Good luck, Anzu." Nuo said while he and the other boys ran past the girl duelist.
"Let's duel!" Anzu and her exclaimed.
"I'll go first." Anzu said. "I set one monster facedown and set two cards facedown. I end my turn."
The other girl drew a card, monster and a fossil looking one at best.
"I summon Malasyian Mammoth Graveyard (1200/800)."
' Okay,' Anzu thought to herself. ' How will I counter that?'
"Now I activate Polmerization. With this card, I fuse Malasyian The Snake Hair with Malasyian Dragon Zombie for Malasyian Great Mammoth of Goldfine (2200/1800)."
Anzu was surprised as she noticed a fairly giant golden mammoth adorned with silver tusks appearing on the field.
"Now my Goldfine will attack your facedown."
Goldfine came stampeding onto Anzu's monsters, which gave them moderate damage.
She attacked a porcelain doll with vertical lines under her eyebrows and blue eyes. After she was flipped face-up, her fingers created fire.
"You attacked Fire Sorcerer. Since she was flipped, I banish two cards randomly in my hand and inflict 800 points of damage to your life points."
The woman frowned as Fire Sorcerer summoned a few fireballs at her.
Opponent:3200
"I activate the effect of Goldfine Mammoth: when it destroys a monster by battle while I control a Malasyian monster, I can special summon that monster to my field."
Fire Sorcerer appeared on her field, her hands with small blue embers and her eyes yellow.
"Fire Sorcerer, attack your former master!"
She obliged, delivering several fireballs to Anzu.
Anzu: 3000
"Now Malasyian Mammoth Graveyard, attack her directly."
The bony mammoth charged towards Anzu, knocking her off her feet.
Anzu: 1800
"I now activate the quick-spell Malasyian Rush. By paying 500 Life Points a monster on my field with 1500 or LESS ATK can attack again. I pick Mammoth Graveyard."
Mammoth Graveyard attacked again, with damage greater than the last.
Anzu: 600
"I end my turn, all hail the power of Aethba."
Anzu drew a card from her deck.
"I activate Macro Cosmos. With this card all cards that would be sent to the graveyard are banished instead. I now activate NeedleBug Nest. This card sends five cards from my deck to the graveyard, but now their vanished instead."
She banished a total of six cards.
"I now activate Chaos Greed. If I have four or more cards banished with no cards in my graveyard, I draw two cards."
This gave her cards a yellow aura, indicating the sin of greed.
She drew a monster that was needed.
"I summon Gren Maju Da Eiza (?/?)."
Gren Maju Da Eiza had the appearance of a woman clad in a dark blue cloak.
"For every banished card, Eiza gains 400 ATK. And now, I activate Tremendous Fire. This will do 1000 to you and 500 to me."
Anzu: 100
Girl: 1700
"And since I have Macro Cosmos, it is banished instead of going to the graveyard which raises my Eiza's Attack to 2800. Eiza, attack Fire Sorceror and end this duel."
Eiza threw off her cloak, revealing a four armed half-human creature with gangly fingers. It didn't take long for her to strike, reducing Anzu's opponents HP to 0, to her dismay.
She may be done, but her two bulking skeletal beasts were still around and breathing like...like...they weren't holograms.
XXX
The four boys made it to an upper floor. This corridor's walls were bluer than the one below.
"You sure Aethba's around here?" Jonouchi asked.
"I'm really not that sure." Honda replied.
"Surprise you arse's!" someone exclaimed.
Turns out they ran into another duelist, a Dublin citizen in his early thirties.
"Who're you? And are you some sort of agent working for Aethba?" Nuo asked.
He just grinned and kept his duel disk steady. Soon, a duel disk appeared on Honda's arm. It seemed like he wanted to duel Honda.
"Sounds like I'm taking care of this one!" Honda said as he activated his duel disk.
Nuo, Yugi, and Jounochi ran past the challenger and made their way upstairs.
"Let's Duel!"
"I'll go first." His opponent said. "I summon Malasyian Breaker The Magical Warrior (1600)."
The Magical Warrior wore gold and purple armor, as well as wielding a one-handed sword.
"I then activate Malasyian Double Flags. By tributing a Malasyian monster, I can special summon another one from my hand up to two levels higher. So I tribute Breaker for Malasyian Breaker the Dark Magical Warrior (1600/1000)."
This different variant of Breaker now had black and gold armor instead of gold and purple, and his sword was now shining.
"Now I activate the same spell again, this time I summon Malasyian Endymion Magician (2700/2000)."
Endymion was of tall build, sporting robes of the same gold and purple palette Breaker once had. He also wielded a fairly large staff.
"I end my turn."
"If there's anything more foolish in a game its thinking only a high level monster on your field will keep you safe." Honda smirked.
He drew. His game approved and he was about to show how.
"I activate Polmerization. I fuse Roboyarou and Robolady to summon Super Roboyarou (1200/1000)."
Super Roboyarou appeared on the field, as Honda said so.
"Now, attack, Roboyarou. When he attacks, he gains 1000 ATK. And now, I activate Limiter Removal! This will double my Super Roboyarou's ATK, and I chain that activating another Limiter Removal to double his ATK even further (8800)."
The Irishman's mouth gaped in shock as Super Roboyarou charged towards his enemy. This gave him immense damage.
Opponent: 0
He fell on his knees. He looked utterly defeated by Honda's hands, but then he looked baffled.
"Where am I?"
"You're in the middle of Aethba's hellhole. Why must you give yourself up to a crazy madman like him?" Honda replied.