Duel on Ice Part 1
I don't own Digimon or Yu-Gi-Oh
"This is ridiculous…I can't believe a penguin is helping me escape a band of hungry Duel Monsters." Tea thought, grunting with effort as she pulled herself higher and higher up the vine, slowly inching towards the hole in the ceiling of the cave where the Hitotsu-Me Giants were still preparing to cook her.
The penguin above watched her patiently and chirped a few times. "I'm coming. Don't rush me." She huffed. "Great, now I'm conversing with the penguin…" she sighed. As she reached the top, she began pulling herself through the hole when a loose rock fell into the cave and landed in the pot of boiling water.
The group of Hitotsu-Me Giants noticed and slowly looked up to see Tea looking down at them and she stuck her tongue out at them. "See ya later." She chirped before running off with the penguin, the roars of the Duel Monsters reverberating through their cave.
A few moments later the Duel Monsters had left their cave and were now chasing Tea and the penguin across the wasteland. "Oh man, this is really bad!" she thought. "Now I really wish this was a dream." She saw the penguin running ahead of her and she followed it. If anyone knew where to go it would be the strangely intelligent penguin.
She followed the creature to an old, unstable rope bridge that stretched across a deep ravine. She gulped nervously before hearing the Hitotsu-Me Giants roar as they got closer. "Just don't look down, just don't look down." She thought, holding onto the ropes of the bridge as she made her way across it.
When she was halfway across, the Hitotsu-Me Giants caught up and one began moving across the bridge after her. Tea gasped and started moving across the bridge faster while another one of the giants began cutting the ropes with its crude axe.
The ropes then snapped, and the bridge began collapsing and falling into the ravine. Tea ran the rest of the way and she jumped hoping to reach the other side. She managed, barely, holding onto the other side with her arms while the pursuing Hitotsu-Me Giant fell into the ravine with a roar.
The other Hitotsu-Me Giants all growled at the loss of one of their own as well as the loss of their meal. Tea however was relieved to be safe. "Oh, thank goodness…" she panted as she climbed up onto solid ground.
The penguin she had followed looked at her and smiled. She giggled and gently petted the animal before it turned and waddled away for a moment before turning back to her. "You want me to follow you?" The penguin nodded. "Okay."
And with that the two were off walking side by side through the virtual landscape.
Meanwhile, Yugi, who had taken over from Yami, was running down a seemingly virtual corridor. "Will this ever end?" he asked, stopping to take a breather.
"It might, but remember Yugi, Noah is controlling everything around us. We must be cautious." Yami said, the spirit appearing beside him.
"Noah can try to stop us, but he won't stop us from finding our friends." Yugi replied, Yami nodded and the two continued running down the corridor unaware Noah was watching them.
"Run all you want little Yugi, you're getting nowhere fast. But not to worry, I have a destination in mind for you, but it won't be near any of your friends." The boy said, tapping his fingers on the arm rests of his chair and he watched as Yugi vanished, falling down an endless hole.
"Mr Noah." A voice sounded out from around Noah.
"Speak to me Crump." He replied.
"I'd like to volunteer to duel the next victim and to make up for Gansley's defeat."
"Fine. Just don't fail me like he did Crump. I've already picked your opponent, and it should be easy to defeat her." Noah said, eyes glinting with cruelty as he looked at Tea as she and the penguin she had been following boarded a raft on the shore of an ocean. "Good luck, Tea."
Back with Tea, she was sitting on the raft as it now sailed across the ocean before she saw something in the distance. "Um, is that where we're going?" she asked the penguin who nodded. It then jumped off the raft and dove into the water. "Hey, where are you going!?"
Looking up she spotted hundreds of penguins lining the icy cliffs as she sailed past, and she gulped. "Oh great…I had to get on a raft ride that led me straight to a virtual Antarctica…or a planet of the penguins. I'm not sure which is worse." She muttered. Soon the raft ran aground, and she saw hundreds of penguins on the beach waiting for her.
The penguins then parted, leaving her a straight path that led towards a massive amount of stairs that went up the mountain to a giant house. "There had better be someone up there." She thought.
Soon, she reached the top of the stairs and the doors to the house swung open, inside she saw even more penguins waiting for her. "Hello? Is there anyone here!?"
"Of course there is. Look around you." A voice echoed all around her. "You're surrounded by my penguin army."
Tea frowned and crossed her arms. "I gathered that. I meant is there anyone here besides them?" she asked.
"There's no one here but us penguins, Tea."
"You know my name?" Tea asked in shock.
"I know more than that, Tea Gardner. 5'5, size six sneaker. I've got all the numbers in my report, and I'd say your number is up because I'm about to put the freeze on you." The voice answered before laughing, causing Tea to frown.
"Hang on a minute, you're one of the Big Five aren't you!?" She shouted.
The voice chuckled again before the penguins moved away to reveal a table and chair. "Very perceptive." Before her eyes a giant penguin wearing a suit and top hat appeared sitting on the table.
"Why the heck are you looking like a penguin?" Tea asked.
"A matter for discussion later. Allow me to introduce myself, I'm Adrien Crump, formerly the head accountant of KaibaCorp." The penguin said before flipping off the table and sitting in the chair before he pulled out a small notebook. "Now let's do a quick review of your numbers. According to my notes there is a 100% chance we're going to duel."
"Me versus you?" Tea asked with a frown. Luckily for her, Daisuke had been helping her practice her dueling skills since before Duelist Kingdom and after they had returned from the island, Daisuke had coached her further.
"Exactly. Winner gets to leave this world; the loser is stuck here forever. Now back to my notes." Crump said. "Says here you've dueled a total of five times in your whole life. That gives you a 1% chance of winning this duel. It also says you've eaten two-hundred and sixteen slices of pizza."
"How do you know all that stuff about me birdbrain?" Tea demanded.
"Knowing facts and figures is my job, and you'd be surprised what numbers tell you about a person's life." Crump said.
"Well you creep I don't need you to know things about me." Tea said.
"Oh, on the contrary. You see, I need to know everything about you so that when I win this duel, I'll be ready to become you." Crump replied. "You see, my partners and I no longer have our original bodies, that's why I am in the body of the Nightmare Penguin so that I can live amongst my penguin brothers and sisters."
"Why don't you stay here then?" Tea asked him.
"Because I need the real-world Tea, once I outclass you in our duel. I'll be able to return to the real world disguised as you." Crump answered with a smirk, the crowd of penguins around them clapped their flippers together in applause.
"You've got to be kidding me. I'm out of here!" Tea told Crump, she turned and ran off only for Crump to chuckle.
"Run all you want Tea, but the odds are against you." He called out to her as she fled the house, as she ran through the forest of the island she was trapped on, she almost lost her footing when everything was suddenly covered in a layer of ice.
"What the?" She yelped, looking around before the ground beneath her cracked and the entire island shattered leaving her standing on a small pillar of ice in the middle of the ocean.
Hearing the laughter of Crump, she saw the member of the Big Five rising out of the ocean on another pillar of ice. "It looks like my iceberg dueling arena is about to leave you cold."
Tea frowned before a duel disk appeared around her left arm in a flash of light followed by endless rows of Duel Monster cards appearing in front of her.
"As per the new rules we must construct our decks from the virtual card database. But no matter what cards you choose, the odds of you winning are slim to none." Crump told her.
"That's what he thinks." Tea thought. "I'm glad Daisuke took so much time to coach me in practice duels when she could. So, I'll choose a proper deck that she told me about." She began picking the cards along with a few others she thought might help her.
Soon, her deck was complete, and it appeared in her duel disk with a flash of light. "Now as per the new rules of the Deck Master system, choose your Deck Master." Crump told her.
"I know just who to pick." Tea said, taking one card from her deck and holding it up. "Dark Magician Girl, come on out!"
In a flash of light, the spellcaster appeared and stood beside Tea with a kind smile. "As you are aware, I am the Nightmare Penguin, that means I am both the duelist and Deck Master, double the trouble." Crump informed her with a chuckle.
"Keep laughing, Crump. You won't be so happy when I kick your feathered butt." Tea said as she activated her duel disk and her life-points climbed to 4000 and Crump did the same. "Time to duel, fish breath!"
Meanwhile, Yugi and Yami were now stuck in a room with doors on each side. "Which door to choose? If we don't pick one, we're stuck here." Yugi said, walking to one of the doors.
"Don't touch it." Yami called out suddenly, spinning around to look at his partner. "We have to test these doors for traps." Yugi blinked and nodded. He pulled out a coin from his pocket and flicked it at the door he was about to walk through, as the coin reached the door, a bright flash of light and a demonic figure appeared knocking the coin back to Yugi.
"Testing doors is definitely smart." He said.
"I suspected as much. We may have won our duel, but I sense a whole new game is just beginning." Yami said ominously.
Back with Tea and Crump, Tea was taking the first turn of the duel. She drew a card and saw it was Mirror Force. "I set one card face down. And then I will summon Amazon Sage to the field in Attack mode." Her face down card appeared followed by her monster. A dark-skinned woman with blue hair wearing tribal clothing and a cloak over her body appeared. Amazon Sage had an Attack of 1400 and a Defence of 700. "Your turn Crump."
Crump chuckled. "Now the fun begins." He drew a card and smirked. "First off I'll summon my Giant Red Sea Snake, in Attack mode!" A giant red serpent appeared with a screech and Tea's eyes widened when she saw its Attack points climb from 1800 to 2000.
"How did your monster get more attack points already?" She questioned.
"It's my Deck Master ability, every water type monster on my side of the field gains 200 extra attack points." Crump explained.
"Then why don't you attack me already?" Tea asked, trying to bait Crump into attacking so she could use her trap card.
"Patience, we accountants are a cautious bunch, I never rush in unless the numbers are there to support it. To attack now, I'd have to ignore one very important fact, your face down card. I am 90% sure it's a trap. That's not a risk a man in my position can afford to take." Crump said, making Tea gasp in shock.
"But there is a way around this predicament. I play the magic card, Cold Wave!" Crump continued, playing a magic card and Tea's face down card was covered in ice. "When Cold Wave is in effect, it stops us both from using magic and trap cards for one full turn. Meaning your Amazon is a sitting duck. Attack!"
His monster roared and lunged towards Tea's monster, tearing through it with its sharp jaws. "No, my life-points!" Tea gasped as her monster was destroyed and her life-points fell to 3400. She then gasped as her feet and ankles were encased in ice.
"Oh, I forgot to mention as our life-points decrease we become slowly encased in ice. A chilling ending for the loser, which in this case will be you. Your mind will become trapped in ice for the rest of eternity." Crump said, laughing wickedly as a cold wind blew through the arena causing Tea to shiver.
"So cold…" she shuddered.
Back with Yugi and Yami, they could hear Tea's voice as she shivered in the cold. "Tea! Where are you Tea!" Yugi shouted, worried.
"Noah is letting us hear her voice. What a cruel trick." Yami then said with a frown.
"We've got to find her, now!" Yugi shouted, running towards one of the doors but when he slammed into it, he was thrown back by a white burst of energy. He landed on his back with a thud and Yami knelt beside him.
"Stay calm, that's just what Noah wants you to do." He said.
"But what about Tea?" Yugi asked.
"Look above the door." Yami answered and Yugi did so seeing a single star and he blinked.
"A star…wait a minute. In Duel Monsters a star represents a card's strength." He said.
"Right, and behind that door there must be a one-star monster waiting for us." Yami told him. Yugi got to his feet and activated his duel disk.
"Then we're going to have to find out what it is." He said, drawing a card from his deck. "I summon Winged Dragon, Guardian of the Fortress!" the blue winged dragon appeared in front of him. "Attack, find out what's behind the door."
His dragon nodded and flew towards the door as a Sinister Serpent appeared out of the door. Yugi's Winged Dragon unleashed a fireball and obliterated the monster.
"Alright, let's go through. But who knows where the door will take us." Yami said.
"Hopefully, to Tea." Yugi replied as they walked through the now open door.
Back at the duel, Tea shivered from the ice around her feet which Crump continued to taunt her about. "What's the matter Tea, got cold feet?"
"Real funny Crump. You accountants are hysterical." Tea said, shivering as she drew her next card. "I…I play one monster in defence mode and end my turn."
"Sounds like someone's got a case of the chills. You should really dress more appropriately for the weather." Crump said as Tea set her monster face down.
"Sorry, my tuxedo was at the cleaners." She snapped back.
"You got spunk kid. Too bad it'll all go to waste when your mind is frozen here." Crump said as he drew his next card. "Now let's see, this card is good, but then again there are also these ones…"
"Hurry up! it's freezing!" Tea snapped at him, angry he was taking so long and making her freeze even more.
"I have to weigh up the percentages and benefits of each card in my deck. This takes time after all. Dark Magician Girl on her own is not much of a risk, but if you added other cards to your deck then she would be a threat." Crump said.
"Add other cards to her?" Tea asked.
"Of course, every good duelist knows that. Don't tell me you forget to devise a strategy when picking your cards?" he replied.
"You don't have to worry about that." Tea told him. Of course, she thought up a strategy, she wasn't about to let all her lessons with Daisuke go down the toilet.
"I'll keep you guessing by setting these two cards face down and now I'll wait for your meltdown." Crump said, setting two cards which appeared in front of him.
"He didn't attack, that means he's planning something." Tea thought.
"Soon my brain will be inside that empty head of yours, and I'll finally be free." Crump said.
"I wouldn't be counting my chickens before they hatched just yet." Tea replied. She drew her next card and nodded.
"I next play Mystical Space Typhoon; this card lets me destroy one of your face down cards." Tea said. "So, say goodbye to that one." A small typhoon shot across the field and blew away one of Crump's face down cards.
"Ah, you took my bait. You destroyed one card only to fall victim to the second one." Crump said, laughing at her as he activated his other set card. "Driving Snow, when activated it will send a blizzard right at you, destroying your face down card, leaving you with nothing to protect yourself from my sea snake!"
Tea and Dark Magician Girl gasped as a blizzard blew through, destroying Tea's Mirror Force and leaving both covered in snow. "Cold enough for ya?"
"Oh, cram it, Crump!" Tea hissed, blowing into her hands to try and warm them up. As it was still her turn, she looked at the cards in her hand and saw they were Skelengel, Offerings to the Doomed, Amazon Blowpiper and Pot of Greed.
Her hand trembled as she reached for another card in her hand when her Deck Master grabbed her hand gently.
"Tea wait, my Deck Master ability allows us to communicate mentally. I'm here to guide you." The voice of Dark Magician Girl echoed in her mind.
Tea nodded with a smile. "Okay, you have my trust." She told the spellcaster as she played her next card. "I activate my magic card, Pot of Greed, this lets me draw two cards from my deck." She told Crump, the cards she drew were Amazon Scouts and Monster Reborn. "Next I play Offerings to the Doomed!"
Crump growled as bandages began wrapping around his monster before crushing it until it was destroyed. "Next, I flip over my set monster, switching it to attack mode. Say hello to Fire Sorcerer!" her face down monster flipped over and a small girl wearing black clothes and with long blonde hair appeared, two streams of flame coming from her hands.
"Pretty cool right? Now I activate her special ability." Tea said. "By banishing two cards from my hand I can deal 800 points of damage to your life-points." She chose to banish Amazon Blowpiper and Amazon Scouts to activate her monster's effect.
Crump blinked before the Fire Sorcerer's flames shot towards him catching his flippers on fire. He screamed, waving them around before shoving both burning flippers into his mouth as his life-points fell to 3200.
"Next, direct attack. Fire Sorcerer, put that bird on the hot seat!" Tea shouted and her monster who had 1000 Attack points obeyed, she cast a barrage of fireballs down at Crump who screamed, running around his small ice platform until one fireball slammed into him and he fell over with a groan, his life-points falling to 2200.
Crump then felt the ice crawling up his feet as his own rule came back to bite him. "How do you like the cold?" Tea asked.
"I absolutely love it. if you hadn't noticed, I'm a penguin and we like to keep things on the cool side." Crump said. "Or did you forget and need a refresher course in Antarctic birds?"
"Now that you mention it, why the heck did you choose a penguin as your body?" Tea replied with a frown.
"Ah, that's a good story. You see I was an only child, and my parents didn't care about me. They always argued and worked late. So, I took to counting things to pass the time, crumbs on the rug, dots on the wallpaper and so on. Then one day while I was counting books on the shelf, I found a book about penguins, and I learned the parents took turns sitting on their eggs. These birds had a bond with their children that I never knew existed. From then on, my life revolved around my two loves, numbers and penguins." Crump explained.
"I climbed to the top of KaibaCorp's ladder and became the chief accountant and number expert. I then came to Seto Kaiba with a proposal to triple our profits, an all-penguin theme park, but that little brat shut down my dream. So, when I finally escape this world, I'll finally have my revenge!"
"And you're going to do all this by stealing my body if you win this duel?" Tea asked with a frown.
"Of course. Don't take it personally, you were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now let's continue this duel." Crump answered with a smirk.
He drew a card and chuckled. "I summon Flying Penguin!" his monster was as its name described a large penguin with giant ears that acted like wings and thanks to Crump's Deck Master ability its Attack points climbed from 1200 to 1400. "And that's not all, I equip it with the magic card, Penguin Sword, giving it 800 more Attack points."
"That's not good. My monster's toast." Tea gasped.
"Flying Penguin destroy her Fire Sorcerer!" Crump commanded and his penguin swung down the sword sending a wave of energy towards Tea's monster destroying it and Tea's life-points dropped to 2200.
More ice-covered Tea's body, reaching just above her knees and she shivered from the cold. "Your life-points are almost down fifty percent, and you have no more defensive monsters to protect you, it won't be long now until you're left out in the cold." Crump told her with a chuckle.
"I…I won't let you win…C..Crump…" Tea told him as her Deck Master looked on in concern.
The end of the chapter
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