49. On the Move.

The end is nearing.

One Crystal Star remains, guarded by Lord Crump and his Magnus Von Grapple 2.0, Luigi once again stands against the Duel Robot.

X-Naut Base: a few hours before Luigi's arrival.

The door to TEC's room opened.

'Welcome back Rozalin.' The mechanical voice of TEC spoke.

'TEC, you are the computer of this base, you need to open all the doors, I need to get out.' Rozalin spoke quietly.

'I am sorry Rozalin, I cannot do that, I do not have access to those functions, Sir Grodus restricted my access to several systems.' TEC replied.

'I realize we cannot be together, I want to protect you, but I cannot do that...' The computer went silent, the door opened and Sir Grodus entered flanked by two Elite X-Nauts.

'Betrayed by my own computer.' Sir Grodus spat: 'You have allowed this wench to relay information to her friends.' The X-Naut leader nodded, the two Elite X-Nauts both walked to one side of the computer.

'This base is soon worthless, so will you be TEC, yet I have one final task.' Grodus said with a threatening voice.

'Please Sir Grodus, don't do this I beg of you...' TEC tried, but the soldiers started to type in a series of commands, TEC's screen now showed a white skull, immediately the lights went out as the computer went to sleep mode.

'Grave!' Grodus then roared, mere seconds later the man entered the room.

'Please escort this girl back to her cell, I will hold one last meeting then we're out.'

A couple of minutes later in the meeting room.

Grodus looked around his office, he knew this was the last time, Azrael, Grave, Syn, Beldam, Marilyn and Doopliss were present, Azrael was standing with his back against the wall, his eyes closed, Grave sat on one of the chairs, he was observing Doopliss, the sheeted creature was staring back at Grave clearly Doopliss was not feeling comfortable.

'Everyone.' Grodus spoke breaking the silence.

'Today we will move on the Palace of Shadows that lies beyond the Thousand-Year Door, our goal is the burial room where the Shadow Queen is sealed, once there we will break the seal and free the Shadow Queen.' Grodus paused he looked at everyone, Azrael and Grave showed no emotion, Marilyn and Beldam as well as Syn seemed to be exited.

'This will be not an easy task as Mario and his friends are opposing us, they want the Crystal Stars, the objects that can seal the Shadow Queen permanently, those Crystal Stars need to be destroyed, but that can only be done when they are together.'

Grodus stood up, he opened one of the many drawers of the cabinet in the back of the room, out the drawer he took the Crystal Star.

'This is the last one Mario needs, he will be hunting for this, therefor Lord Crump stays here in the base.' Grodus held out the Crystal Star, Lord Crump took it.

'You can count on me Sir Grodus, I will await them here, then Magnus Von Grapple 2.0 will pound them into the ground, once the Duel Robot is activated I will make my escape, as we discussed.'

Azrael moved away from the wall: 'Grodus, only someone with incredible power could destroy the Crystal Stars, I can destroy them.'

Sir Grodus' eyes followed Azrael as he slowly walked through the room.

'I will set a trap for Mario, that will divide the group so Crump here has an easier time, once I destroy Mario I will take his Crystal Stars and destroy them.'

Grodus simply shook his head as Azrael left the room, knowing all too well it had no use to try and talk him out of it.

'Syn you know what to do?' Grodus then asked.

Syn chuckled: 'It's cute how you think I listen to you, I agreed to move that Rozalin to the Palace of Shadows only because I can benefit from that.'

Grodus sighted, he was getting annoyed.

'You know Syn, I don't care whatever you do after you delivered the princess.'

Syn smiled: 'There is a guardian hidden in the Palace, one of the Shadow Queen's pets, I will awaken that guardian, then I will kill Geno.'

After Syn left only Grave, the two remaining Shadow Sirens and Doopliss were left.

Doopliss and Grave were still staring at each other.

'Grave what is up with you, you've been staring at Doopliss ever since you got here?' Grodus asked with a sigh.

'Normally it is my job to kill a creature like Doopliss, feels very unnatural to let him breath.' Grave coldly replied.

'Oh for the love of!' Grodus said: 'The Shadow Sirens are normally on your hit list too and you let them be.' Grodus added.

'They don't annoy me as much as this freak-in-a-sheet here.' with these words Grave stood up.

'I will get Pandora ready then I will head out to the Thousand-Year Door, I prefer to travel with my sister one last time.' These words sounded hollow, deep inside Grave knew he could never defeat Mario in the fated Duel they would undoubtedly have.

'This leaves only the Shadow Sirens and Doopliss.' Grodus finally said, the three all looked at Grodus.

'Marilyn, Doopliss, it is our job to make sure our mistress the Shadow Queen resurrects, therefor we will stall Mario and his allies, our lives mean nothing, besides once the Shadow Queen is at full power she can resurrect us, but remember what I said, kill as many of Mario's friends as you can, Vivian is mine, I will kill that traitor.'

With these words Beldam created a portal, this time allowing Doopliss to get through it, then Marilyn entered and finally Beldam.

Grodus was now alone in his room, he pressed a button, a couple of seconds later two X-Naut Soldiers barged into the room they saluted.

'My X-Naut Commanders, it is time, gather all the forces, we move out in thirty minutes, prepare the helicopters our destination is Rogueport.'

X-Naut Base: Makeshift Prison.

Rozalin was sitting in her cell, she was wearing her pink dress again instead of Pandora's clothes, Grave had guided her back assuring her that he would find a way to get her free, Rozalin sighted, she remembered Grave kidnapped her but Grave has always been nice to her, suddenly she heard footsteps, it wasn't long until Syn approached the room, Syn opened the door, Rozalin drew back in fear a bit, Syn grinned: 'Fear suits you.' Syn's sweet sounding voice broke the silence.

'I know Grave protected you, but your guardian is not here any longer.' Syn continued as she stepped into the room, now Rozalin noticed Syn was holding some ropes and some cloths in her hands.

'Turn around princess.' Syn smiled.

A couple of seconds later Rozalin's hands were tightly secured behind her back, Syn used one of the cloths as a gag the other one as a blindfold, Rozalin tried to fight against the ropes but they only hurt her wrists.

'If you just cooperate I will not hurt you, Grodus wanted you unharmed, but I know ways of hurting you without leaving any damage.'

Then Syn snapped her finger and Rozalin's stomach started to turn as Syn dragged her into the portal Syn had created.

Only seconds later Rozalin fell to her knees as she exited the portal, a chill ran down her spine, though she could not see she knew she was in a place of incredible darkness, before Rozalin knew what was happening she was pulled up by Syn.

'Damn, you should see this place.' Syn said with a sneer, slowly she started to push Rozalin forward.

'You know princess, I would run if I were you, I know what Grodus want, well it's not gonna be pretty.' Syn continued, she stopped Rozalin for a second, the princess could hear a creaking door, Syn then pushed Rozalin in a small cage, the creaking door slammed shut then slowly the cage was lifted into the air.

'You wait here princess.'

Rozalin could hear Syn's footsteps disappear into the distance.

Rogueport.

Several military helicopters landed in the docks, as soon as wave after wave of X-Nauts came out people knew it was serious, some managed to get away the once who couldn't were quickly surrounded by the soldiers, soon after Duel Monsters started to appear all over the town of Rogueport, people who were defeated got dragged away by the soldiers.

Amidst all of this Sir Grodus and his followers marched straight to the sewers.

Goombella and Vivian rushed onto the streets to intercept the soldiers, of course only two Duelists were not enough however a couple of hours prior the two managed to rally a group of young Duelists mostly ex-gang members and some men of Don Pianta, the entire group went up against the soldiers, not soon after many more Duel Monsters appeared followed by explosion.

Grodus watched as his soldiers fled after they lost to Goombella and her group. 'Cowards, we'll deal with them later.' The X-Naut leader grumbled.

Don Pianta's office.

The Don was sitting in his office, then his door was kicked down, about a dozen of Elite X-Nauts barged into the small office.

Minutes later the elite X-Nauts ran out of the office they were followed by the Don chasing them down with a shotgun.

'Nobody takes da city from the Don!' He bellowed while he shot a couple of times in the air.

The Thousand-Year Door.

Merlon stood before the Thousand-Year Door, a determined look on his face he was leaning on a fancy, wooden cane with a gem on top of it, the sound of dozens of marching soldiers slowly came closer, it didn't take long before the first X-Naut Soldier came marching down the hall, it didn't take long before at least ten rows of X-Naut Soldiers stood before Merlon.

'So all this time my plans are foiled and in the end they send an old man.' The voice of Sir Grodus sounded from the back of the room, slowly the soldiers stepped aside and Grodus slowly walked forward.

'No time for pleasantries Grodus, this ends now.' Merlon growled.

Grodus let out a hollow laugh.

'You think you can stop an entire army?' Grodus replied.

Slowly the soldiers started to form a circle around Merlon, the wizard stayed calm, one after the other the soldiers activated their Duel Disks, slowly Merlon heaved his cane, he quickly tapped three times on the ground, the gem on top started to glow, before the X-Nauts knew what was happening lightning struck around them, followed by fire raining from the sky. 'Witchcraft!' Some of the soldiers howled, they started to panic and run back into the sewers.

'Cowards!' Grodus bellowed, then the X-Naut leader turned his attention towards Merlon.

The wizard tapped the floor again, the lightning and fire stopped, then Merlon started to twirl the cane around, concentrated lightning shot out of the cane, before it hit Grodus a barrier appeared in front of the X-Naut leader.

'Not yet old man.' The crooked voice of Beldam spoke, the Shadow Siren appeared before Grodus out of the ground, she was followed by Marilyn, who said nothing.

'Doopliss where are you?' Beldam cried, a few seconds later the creature in the sheet came running down the hallway.

'I cannot move through the shadows like you do slick.' Doopliss replied out of breath.

'The three of you stand no chance.' Merlon calmly said, he lifted his cane from the ground again, this time he quickly turned it around and tapped the ground with the gem, the room was illuminated and when the light died out Beldam, Marilyn and Doopliss were trapped in bubbles.

'Grodus, you were judged, the sentence Star Heaven gave you is death, to be executed immediately.' Merlon spoke while he aimed the gem of his cane at Grodus' head.

'Your judgment is based on a corrupted system.' A voice spoke, Grodus looked around but saw nobody, then out of nowhere Syn leaped out of the shadows, she kicked the cane out of Merlon's hand then caught it herself and quickly broke the gem, this freed the Shadow Sirens.

Grodus was looking at the three Shadow Sirens, Syn and Grodus.

'Think you can still win slick?' Doopliss taunted.

Before Merlon could react to Syn Grave also appeared in the room, he had Lord Crump with him.

'No more jokes Merlon.' Grave said: 'You might be able to take the Shadow Sirens and Crump at once, I don't doubt you would be able to beat me or Syn solo as well.'

Grave and Merlon stared at each other for a few seconds nobody said something or moved.

'You're right Grave.' Merlon finally spoke, slowly he moved away from the door.

'Now to kill him!' Syn laughed, but Grave grabbed her by the shoulder.

'You don't, Merlon goes free, when I picked up Crump Mario and his friends were already on their way here, they should arrive here any moment.'

Syn slapped Grave's hand away, then she looked at Grodus.

'Grave is right, we already lost Azrael and all our recourses are gone, we need to push.' Grodus started to walk forward to the door.

'Beldam, Marilyn, Doopliss and Crump you four defend the perimeter, Syn you set up some traps, Grave kill Mario.' Grodus commanded, only Lord Crump saluted before the entire group walked past Merlon and into the Palace of Shadows.

X-Naut Base.

'Good luck Luigi!' Mallow shouted as he started to chase Crump.

The X-Naut commander ran down the halls, looking over his shoulder every few seconds, Mallow slowly came closer, Crump knew he had to reach the secret room.

'Stand still Crump! Accept your fate!' Mallow roared.

'Forget it! This ain't worth it!' Crump shouted as a reply.

At one point Crump slammed into a wall, Mallow thought he had caught him, then a hidden door in the wall slid open, Crump leaped down the staircase, Mallow carefully followed him.

Then Mallow saw Crump, the X-Naut commander sat in an aircraft, he just took off.

'Luigi Mallow here, Crump got away.' Mallow said through his D-Gazer.

X-Naut Base: Hangar.

(Magnus Von Grapple 2.0: 8000) - (Luigi: 8000)

'I will start the Duel.' Magnus said in it's annoying, monotone, robotic voice.

'I activate the Field Spell card: Mausoleum of the Emperor.'

Two obelisks with a fire pit in between them appeared behind Magnus, a stone stair lead up to the fire pit, lining the walls of the hangar appeared clay statues modeled after medieval knights.

'With this Field Spell, I can pay 1000 Life Points for a Tribute Summon instead of using Monsters, with that I pay 2000 Life Points.' Magnus stated, the robot's Life Points dropped a bit, then two of the clay knights disappeared.

(Magnus Von Grapple 2.0: 6000) - (Luigi: 8000)

'First I Set a Monster.' Magnus stated, a reversed card appeared before him horizontally.

'Next I Set two cards.' The Duel Robot continued, the cards appeared vertically behind the hidden Monster.

'My turn ends.' Magnus concluded.

Luigi drew his card.

'Last time I faced Magnus Von Grapple back in the Boggly Woods he used a Lockdown Deck, it nearly cost me, but it's first move now is plain weird, I need to be careful.' Luigi thought as he looked over his hand.

'Not much here, so I also Set a Monster.' Luigi stated, just as with Magnus a horizontally placed card also appeared before Luigi.

'The Trap card Present card activates.' Magnus spoke, one of his two reversed Spell or Trap cards opened up.

'My opponent discards their hand then draws five new cards.' The robot explained.

'Really? You want to go for a Deck-out?' Luigi scoffed as he discarded his hand then took the five top cards from his Deck.

'O - Oversoul, Call of the Haunted, Ice Edge, Lady Heat and Bubbleman, not exactly what I needed.' Luigi thought as he looked at his new cards.

'The Trap card Null and Void activates.' Magnus broke Luigi's thoughts.

'When an Effect that allows to draw cards is activated, both players show the cards they draw then discard them.' Magnus explained.

Luigi sighted, but he showed his hand before all five cards disappeared into his Graveyard.

'So far for Decking me out.' Luigi muttered.

'Well got no other choice but to end my turn.'

Magnus drew a new card.

'Strategy complete, chances of victory ninety-seven percent.' The robot buzzed.

'Oh no, not the percentage nonsense again.' Luigi groaned as he felt a headache coming.

'I Flip my Monster, Mystical Knight of Jackal.' The robot stated, the reversed card disappeared and a creature appeared in the hangar, a humanoid creature with the head of a jackal, dressed in ancient, Egyptian attire, it held a blade in it's right hand the creature's eyes glowed red, the beast unleashed a powerful howl. (2700 ATK)

'Proceeding to Normal Summon Winged Sage Falcos.' Magnus continued, next to the jackal appeared a smaller, humanoid creature it had blue wings and the head of a falcon covered in blue feathers, the creature wore a white cloak concealing it's body. (1700 ATK)

'Now I Equip Mystical Knight of Jackal with the Equip Spell: Fairy Meteor Crush.' The robot stated, his Spell card flashed on the Field.

'This Spell card gives my Monster a Piercing Effect, this means...' Magnus started but Luigi stopped him: 'I know what Piercing Effect means, I do not need explanations on everything!' Luigi roared.

'Skipping explanation, Mystical Knight of Jackal attacks the Monster!'

The card disappeared and Sparkman appeared in it's place. (1400 DEF)

Suddenly some hatches in the shoulders of the robot opened.

'Initiating combat sequence.' The robot said, missile launchers appeared out of it's shoulders.

'You've got to be!' Luigi shouted as he ran for cover, missiles flew everywhere, one blew Sparkman away, one other missile landed behind Luigi he was knocked on the floor where he stayed hoping no more missiles would hit him.

(Magnus Von Grapple 2.0: 6000) - (Luigi: 6700)

When the violence stopped Luigi stood up, the hangar was heavily damaged, there were holes in the floor and ceiling, small fires were everywhere, then the sprinklers turned on.

'When Mystical Knight of Jackal destroys a Monster by Battle and sends it to my opponent's Graveyard, the Monster returns to the top of the Deck.'

Luigi took the card from his Duel Disk and placed it back on top of his Deck.

'Winged Sage Falcos, direct attack.' Magnus commanded.

'Not again!' Luigi roared as the rest of the missiles were launched at him.

(Magnus Von Grapple 2.0: 6000) - (Luigi: 5000)

Luigi looked around there were even more holes, this time even the walls were not spared.

'My turn ends here.' Magnus stated.

Luigi drew his card which was of course Sparkman.

'This is a problem, if I Summon Sparkman, Magnus simply attacks it sending it to the top of my Deck, got only one chance here but I need incredible luck.'

Luigi noticed he was sweating a bit.

'Here goes nothing I pass.' Luigi said with a sigh.

'Chances of victory are ninety-nine percent, if next draw is a Monster chances of victory are one-hundred percent.'

Luigi looked at the Duel Robot.

'No monster, no monster, please no monster.'

'Mystical Knight of Jackal and Winged Sage Falcos direct attack.'

This time hatches in the arms of the robot opened and miniguns came out, Magnus stretched it's arms and blindly started to fire, Luigi ducked for cover in one of the holes in the floor, he heard the bullets hitting the floor around him.

(Magnus Von Grapple 2.0: 6000) - (Luigi: 600)

When Luigi heard the clicking noise of Magnus being out of ammo he dared to peek out of the hole.

'My turn ends.' The Duel Robot stated like nothing had happened, the floor of the hangar was covered with bullets, the walls looked like Swiss cheese

'Damn, that thing is insane, I need to stop it.' Luigi muttered, he drew his card. 'Good Pot of Avarice, with all the cards you made me discard I have more than five Monsters in my Graveyard.' Luigi growled, the Spell card materialized, Luigi took: Prisma, Bubbleman, Ice Edge, Bladedge and Lady Heat from his Graveyard, he shuffled them into his Deck then he drew two cards.

'Now I activate Miracle Fusion!' Luigi shouted, his Spell card appeared and behind him appeared the Fusion vortex.

'I Banish Avian and Burstinatrix from my Graveyard!' Luigi shouted, he pocketed the two cards, the two Monsters appeared in the vortex.

'I Fusion Summon Flame Wingman!'

In a flash of light the Hero appeared on the Field striking a pose. (2100 ATK)

'Chances of winning still ninety-five percent.' Magnus calculated.

'Make it zero scrap-heap, I activate Skydive Scorcher!'

Luigi's second Spell card appeared.

'Skydive Scorcher destroys all Monsters with attack higher than a Elemental HERO Fusion Monster I control, in this case only your Jackal is destroyed, but you take damage equal to it's Original Attack.' Luigi explained.

Flame Wingman leaped forward, stopping right before Jackal, then a wall of flames erupted from the ground devouring Jackal and surrounding Magnus.

(Magnus Von Grapple 2.0: 3300) - (Luigi: 600)

'Now I Normal Summon Sparkman.' Luigi stated, the electric-charged Hero appeared on the Field.

'Chances of victory zero percent, this is impossible.' Magnus stated.

'Flame Wingman, take down that Falcos!' Luigi roared.

First Flame Wingman burned the bird-man to a crisp then the Hero directed it's flames a Magnus, while the robot was on fire, it started to smoke, parts of the Duel Robot caught fire.

'Sparkman!' Luigi shouted, the Hero unleashed it's full power on the robot, the electricity combined with the sprinklers was too much for the Duel Robot, Luigi ducked for cover as Magnus Von Grapple started to smoke like crazy and finally it exploded.

(Magnus Von Grapple 2.0: 0) - (Luigi: 600)

Luigi sat on his knees, gasping for breath, Magnus Von Grapple laid before him in a smoldering heap of metal, the hangar was completely trashed, Bow entered the room first, closely followed by Ruby who still was carrying all the cards.

Bow helped Luigi back on his feet, Mario's brother picked up the Crystal Star from the ground: 'We got what we came for.' Luigi said, as he wanted to walk away an alarm suddenly broke the silence.

'Self destruct sequence activated.' A computer voice spoke.

'This is a message to Mario or his allies, my name is TEC, I control the X-Naut base, Sir Grodus has taken Rozalin to the Palace of Shadows, Rozalin figured out that the Shadow Queen needs her as a vessel, I did not have the power to stop Sir Grodus, I will be deactivated but I will take this den of evil with me, you have ten minutes to escape.'

nine minutes later Luigi, Bow and Ruby ran over the bridge, at the other end Geno and Mario were waiting, Luigi showed the Crystal Star.

'Mario the base is about to...' Luigi started but was silenced by a loud explosion, the top of the mountain erupted in smoke, flames and debris, the bridge started to shake and crumble.

'Run!' Bow yelled.

Geno started to chant, only seconds before the bridge collapsed Geno and the others appeared at the other side in Fahr Outpost.

The group sat together, the triumphant feeling they had when Geno told them Azrael was dead, was quickly gone when Luigi confirmed Mario's suspicion of Rozalin being the host for the Shadow Queen.


Next time:

Mario's group finally enter the Thousand-Year Door.

From here on out they enter the Realm of Darkness and weird things can happen.

However in the lobby of the palace Lord Crump awaits now infused by darkness making him stronger and more fierce, Goombella wants to face Lord Crump in order to overcome her fears of the Lord.

''The Palace of Shadows'' coming next.