Night (if only I had a dime for every time I started a scene with this word lately!) Rebecca is back at the Mutos' house, where she is staying these days.
'Oh, I'm dead,' she comments with a sigh of fatigue, taking off her white boots with one hand while tying her messy hair in a makeshift ponytail with the other. 'And sweaty. I need a bath.'
What a day that was! She got involved into a lot of duels, but she's almost there. She has five locator cards. One more to go. Tomorrow, she will defeat one more weakling and, bingo, she's in the finals.
That moment, the preteen girl realizes that Yugi's grandpa is sitting at a table, with his eyes fixed on her, as if he has been waiting for her. He has a grim expression on his wrinkled face, which Rebecca would swear is even more wrinkled than usual.
'Huh? Is something wrong, Mister Muto?' the girl asks. 'Where is Yugi?'
'Where were you, Rebecca?' the old man slowly stands up. 'Tea has been kidnapped. Yugi and Tristan are out, looking for her.'
The blonde girl gasps and unconsciously places her palm on her mouth, with her eyes widening.
Robert is still in the graveyard, gazing at one grave or the other.
Suddenly, he hears a voice behind him. 'Perfect! Another victim.'
The one who said that meant to sound frightening, but Robert can tell that this voice belongs to a teenage incel or something. With a sigh of annoyance, he turns his head.
Indeed, it is a teenage incel! Or should I say, a group of teenage incels. One of them, the one who spoke, the one who is holding a duel disk, is short, has spiked, blue hair and bleached skin. His two friends are not much more handsome than him.
Yeah, you guessed right, it's Bonz, the duelist (let's call him that!) Joey fought at the Duelist Kingdom in that cave.
After his loss to Wheeler, he and his friends got beaten up by Bandit Keith, who 'confiscated' their star chips, holding them responsible for that loss, although Bonz had been dueling and deciding on his moves totally under Keith's instruction.
Ever since, Bonz and his friends want revenge. They hoped they would come across Keith at this tournament so that one of them could trounce him, thus restoring their honor. However, long before the Battle City began, that asshole went missing.
Where has Keith been all this time? Nobody knows. Nobody cares. That guy had no loved ones (his family renounced him long ago and he had never had any true friends), so no one bothered reporting him missing to the police, so the police never looked for him.
Oh well. Bonz can still win this tournament. He hasn't done badly so far. He lost a game earlier, but he's still in the running, with two locator cards left.
Robert turns to Kaiba. The former tycoon nods. 'Do it. Crush that pest,' he prompts his protege.
'Well, I was supposed to be on a break, but whatever,' Robert sighs.
He turns to Bonz and prepares his duel disk for battle.
'Go, Bonz. You've got this,' his friends encourage him.
'As you can see,' the short boy chuckles with confidence, 'I've got an audience to cheer for me, whereas you're all alone in this graveyard.'
'I don't care,' Robert rolls his eyes. 'Let's begin.'
Meanwhile, Kaiba, who is still sitting on a grave, arms and legs crossed, raises an eyebrow. Why did that freak say Robert is all alone? Haven't they noticed him? Perhaps the spot he's sitting on is too dark, so they didn't see him. Yes, that must be the reason.
Anyway, in the meantime, the two opponents have wagered two locator cards each. The duel is about to begin. Robert produces a coin. 'Heads or tails?'
'Brains... I mean, heads,' Bonz selects.
Robert tosses the coin. It's heads. So Bonz will go first.
Skipping his draw phase, since it's the first turn, the boy declares his move. 'I set 1 card and also play the Rotten Golem (500/2000) in defense mode.' (ORIGINAL CARD)
The monster card Bonz places on the duel disk in front of the card he set is a zombie card depicting a green, crumbling golem with reddish zombie eyes.
Raising a finger, Bonz explains the effect of his monster. 'As long as this card remains in defense mode, it loses 500 ATK points every turn and, every time that happens, you take the same amount of direct damage.'
Robert gasps, slightly worried.
'In other words,' Bonz unnecessarily continues, 'unless you defeat it right away, prepare for some serious damage soon!'
'My turn,' Robert cries and draws. 'I play the Dragon Cerberus (1700/1000) in attack mode.' (ORIGINAL CARD)
A somewhat large beast appears on the field. Its body is that of a dog, whereas its head and long neck are those of a dragon. It's a dragon type monster.
'This is the dragonic version of Cerberus, the mythical beast that guards the gates of Hades, the underworld,' Robert explains as the aforementioned monster makes its entrance more impressive with a roar.
'I don't care about mythology,' Bonz rolls his eyes, bored.
'Then maybe you care about this,' Robert chuckles. 'I equip my monster with Dragons Unite.'
Bonz gasps as Robert places on the board a spell card depicting a row of blue dragons. 'The monster equipped with this card gains 400 ATK points for every dragon on my field, including itself of course.'
The Dragon Cerberus roars even louder as its ATK points jump to 2100.
'Now, Dragon Cerberus, attack. Underworld Fire!'
The dragon breaths fire that melts the stone zombie.
'I end my turn.'
'Bonz! Don't tell me you're gonna lose,' one of his friends cries.
'Of course not,' the short boy scoffs. And he continues in his head, 'My face down card has great potential. If I find a way to utilize it, victory is mine.'
Bonz draws a card and smiles. 'Card Destruction,' he cries.
This spell card forces both players to discard their respective hands and then draw the same number of cards. And so, they do. Robert is curious to see what the shorter duelist is up to.
'And now, I activate my face down card,' Bonz cries, elated. 'Call of the Haunted!'
This continuous spell card depicts a graveyard.
A sweatdrop trickles down the blond duelist's cheek.
'To activate it, I need to pay half my life points.' Bonz elaborates on this powerful card's effect as his life points drop to 2000. 'When it is activated, it allows me to target, in my graveyard, up to three level 4 or lower monsters belonging to the fiend or warrior or dragon type. The targeted monsters are special summoned from the grave, except they're now zombies. And, as zombies, they are 500 points stronger, plus, every time they are destroyed, they are immediately resurrected and gain 200 more ATK points! ZOMBIES ARE IMMORTAL!'
And so, the three monsters Bonz discarded earlier, when he played the Card Destruction card, emerge from the ground, in their rotten, zombie forms. Opticlops (1800/1700), a reddish, horned cyclops, has transformed into the Cyclops Zombie (2300/0). (ORIGINAL TRANSFORMATION) Zanki (1500/1700), a samurai warrior wearing a blue mask and dressed in crimson armor, dark brown trousers and black boots, has transformed into the Armored Zombie (2000/0). The Dragon Dwelling in the Cave (1300/2000), a spiked, blue dragon, has transformed into the Cave Zombie (1800/0). (ORIGINAL TRANSFORMATION)
'Furthermore, when I draw Pumking the King of Ghosts, I will be able to power up my monsters even further on every turn,' Bonz says in his head, rubbing his palms together in anticipation.
Weevil and Rex are gaping at the blue haired boy speaking to them through the laptop screen.
'Noah?' they ask simultaneously.
'Yes, gentlemen, my name is Noah,' the smartly dressed in a white suit boy confirms one more time, with his hands behind his back in a classy manner and a formal smile on his face. 'And I have a proposal for you. A proposal that I'm sure interests you.'
Silence. The little but devious boy is waiting for his words to sink in. Rex and Weevil exchange looks.
'Wait, wasn't Noah a guy from the Bible?' Weevil asks his peer.
'Yeah,' Rex agrees. 'I think it was that guy who had long hair and was super strong, but then a chick seduced him and cut his hair off...'
'Nonono, you got it wrong, Rex,' Weevil shakes his finger. 'That was another guy. Noah was the one who separated the sea with a cane or something and then defeated a giant with a slingshot...'
Noah facepalms. This is gonna be harder than he thought!
Now, how are we to draw the attention of these two dimwits and convince them to participate in our scheme? Noah guesses that if he tries to tell them about things such as the mournful years he has spent in the digital world and why he thinks he is the rightful ruler of his father's empire, those two idiots will once more gape at him, scratch their stupid heads and be like, 'Huh?'
No, we must play those brainless teenagers in another way. Ok, let's give it a shot.
'Me your friend. Me help you get laid,' Noah drawls, pointing at himself.
Weevil and Rex turn their eyes back to the screen, with their interest renewed.
'How would you like to get brand new bodies? Tall, handsome bodies that will make all chicks drool over you?' Noah offers.
The two boys gasp, with smiles of elation.
'Is this possible?' Rex cries.
'How will we get those bodies?' Weevil cries. 'We will do anything!'
'It's Bonzes victory,' one of the short boy's friends remarks, with his muscular arms crossed and a smile on his not so handsome face.
'Yeah,' the other friend adds. 'That blond guy has no face down cards on the field. If Bonz attacks now with all his zombies, it's game over.'
However, Robert is just standing there, with a haughty expression.
'MY ZOMBIES, ATTACK,' a delighted Bonz points forward.
The resurrected, rotten but powerful creatures on Bonzes field start advancing forward. Slowly, but it doesn't matter; the battles between holograms don't take place in real time, so Robert's monster cannot dodge those attacks, no matter how slow they are. Soon, the Cyclops Zombie will destroy the Dragon Cerberus, then the other two zombies will attack directly and...
'You fool,' Robert cries. 'You should have paid attention when I was talking earlier. The Dragon Cerberus is the guard of the underworld, which means that its effect comes into play when there are other dragons in my graveyard. And, thanks to you brainlessly playing Card Destruction earlier, thus forcing me to discard monsters...'
Bonz gasps. 'Wha-what happens now?' he stutters.
'I can play trap cards from my hand!' the German duelist exclaims. 'And I play the Mirror Force!'
'NO WAY!'
'YES WAY!'
The well known to all of us holy barrier appears on the field and reflects the attack of the Cyclops Zombie to all monsters on Bonzes field, which are destroyed.
Even so, the bleached skinned boy regains his composure soon. 'Hmf, big deal. My zombies are resurrected right away. Plus now all of them are even stronger.' The ATK points of the Cyclops Zombie increase from 2300 to 2500, the ATK points of the Armored Zombie increase from 2000 to 2200, the ATK points of the Cave Zombie increase from 1800 to 2000.
'Yes, your zombies are powerful indeed,' Robert smiles, drawing a card (since it's his turn again). 'But they have a critical weakness. They depend on the Call of the Haunted card you played! If that card is removed from the field, all your zombies go bye bye.'
Bonz steps back, with his eyes widening. 'D-don't tell me that...'
'I play the Stamping Land,' Robert cries, placing on the duel disk a spell card depicting a dragon paw stomping on the ground. 'If I have at least one dragon on my field, I get to destroy one spell or trap card of yours!'
The aforementioned dragon paw appears right above Bonzes continuous spell card and stomps on it, thus destroying it. All Bonzes zombies disappear.
And now, time to finish him off with our most iconic monster. 'I play the spell card Cost Down (a card depicting two swords penetrating a card). For this turn, the level of all monsters in my hand goes down by two levels. So, by tributing only one monster, my Dragon Cerberus, I get to summon LIGHT AND DARKNESS DRAGON! (2800/2400)'
A winged dragon, half black and half white, appears and flaps its wings with a roar.
'LIGHT AND DARKNESS DRAGON, FINISH HIM OFF. DIRECT ATTACK!'
The large monster opens its mouth and fires a blue blast, which forces Bonzes back to the ground and reduces his life points to zero.
Solomon is sleeping, with his head on the table. He has unwillingly fallen asleep while waiting for Yugi to come back.
Rebecca looks at him. Poor old man. She's equally worried. She's wearing a white bathrobe (she took that bath she was talking about after all; as worried as she is, she just couldn't remain sweaty and filthy).
Yugi enters the apartment. He's in his Yami form.
'Yugi,' Rebecca cries.
'Sorry, Rebecca. I'm not in the mood to talk,' Yugi responds, in a tone of voice kinda more rude than he meant to, and goes to his room.
Rebecca sighs and collapses on the couch, running her fingers through her wet hair. Oh, Tea. She knows they have had their differences, but she wishes she could do something about her.
Robert is walking away from the graveyard, looking at the cards he's holding: his five locator cards and the Light and Darkness Dragon.
'This dragon is both light and darkness at the same time,' Kaiba, who is walking by his side, comments. 'Light and darkness are two sides of the same coin. Just as you and I are two sides of the same coin!'
'I'm not in the mood for your philosophical jabberwocky, Seto,' Robert sighs, putting the cards in his pocket.
'You know it's true,' Kaiba chuckles. 'You and I may dislike each other, yet the bond we share is unbreakable. Either we will reign supreme together or go to Hell together.'
'So, is everything clear?' Noah asks impatiently. 'Have you understood what exactly you must do?'
'I think so,' Rex scratches his head. 'But, how will we be able to enter that airship?'
'I don't think the guards will let us in, Noah,' Weevil points out, with a troubled expression.
'First of all, it's Master Noah,' the younger boy instructs them, irritated, not being used to being addressed so informally by anyone other than his (long since dead) parents. And, with an evil smile, he continues, 'As for the airship, don't worry. You will be able to get in. I have a plan.'
'Huh?'
