Chapter 7: Near Critical
The net duel continues with Mokuba and Noah watching from the outside, hoping for a miracle.
"I hope Yami pulls off some kind of miracle." Mokuba says continuing to watch.
"All we have left is hope and faith." Noah says tensing up.
Virtual world
Gozuboro holds the card over his head as he begins gloating. "The special ability of my Infected Giant Germ allows my monster to count as two sacrifices, and not just one! So I can activate my monster's ability of Mitosis and summon a stronger monster now!" The Giant Germ monster in front of Gozuboro begins to split apart into two identical monsters. As the monsters separate, they begin to vanish.
Seto stares on at Gozuboro's Giant Germ card and snickers. "Hehehe... you think that such a cheap little trick will win you the duel, 'pops'?" he mocks.
Gozuboro throws the card that he held above his head down onto the duel disk. "Why yes, my boy! This 'cheap stunt' that you call it is the move that will destroy the both of you, now experience the wrath of Viral Oni!" In the place of the shattered Giant Germs, a red, ghostly demonic dinosaur skeleton appears floating in front of Gozuboro. (0/0/7) "And at the summon of this all-powerful monster, I end my turn."
Yami stares at the monster that Gozuboro summoned with uncertainty. Hmm, why summon that monster? It has no attack or defense power at all. But, I can't pass up an opportunity like this. It's probably a trap, but we need to gain some sort of point advantage on Gozuboro before he completes his strategy... He pulls the top card off his duel disk and places it on the field. "I summon Celtic Guardian in attack mode!" The elvish swordsman holds up its large and sleek sword. (1400/1200/4)
Gozuboro begins to cackle lightly under his breath. "Mhmhmhmhm... Yugi Mutou... what a pathetic move on your part! That monster can't beat my Viral Oni, so just give up. My monster is invulnerable!" The Viral Oni roars at the puny Celtic Guardian below.
Yami only points at Gozuboro, not taking heed to his warning at all. "Then I should do as much damage to your life points as possible before you switch your 'invulnerable' monster into defense mode! Now, Beta the Magnet Warrior, attack Viral Oni!" The yellow magnet monster holds its 'hands' up and shoots out a burst of lightning at Viral Oni.
Gozuboro points back at Beta and Yami. "And for your foolish mistake, you've activated my special ability, rendering your monster's attack useless, and my Viral Oni stronger!" The Viral Oni is hit by Beta's attack, but is not destroyed. Instead, it reaches at Beta and attempts to destroy it. "You see, since your monster had 1700 attack power to throw at it, my monster now also has 1700 attack power. But unlike your monster, it won't be destroyed when both our monsters attack each other. Now Viral Oni, counterattack!"
Viral Oni reaches closer and closer towards Yami and Beta, but stops all of a sudden.
Kaiba snickers as he holds down a button on his duel disk. "Hey, dad, didn't you forget that Yugi and I are both dueling you? And I have a trap card that can stop your 'invulnerable' monster right now, my Crush Card!" Kaiba's facedown card turns face up and Saggi, the clown monster that was on his field before, shatters. Afterwards, the frozen Viral Oni shatters as well.
Gozuboro only grins as his monster disintegrates. "You're learning, my boy..."
Seto only glares back at Gozuboro. "Well learn this: my Crush Card Virus will poison your deck and field, eliminating all monsters that you have in your hand and deck that have more than 1500 attack power, so since Yugi's Beta has 1700 attack power, you won't be able to defend yourself against his attacks, much less mine. And mark my words, Yugi's monsters are the least of your worries in the long run..."
Yami resumes his confident pose. "And now that Viral Oni has been destroyed, even though Beta attacked you, I have another monster to attack you with. Go, Celtic Guardian, attack his life points directly!" Celtic Guardian dashes towards Gozuboro quickly, and strikes him over the shoulder with his sword. (Gozuboro: 2500) Yami grins.
Gozuboro recovers from the temporary shock of the attack and picks the top card off his deck to add to his hand. "It's my move, you two. And it seems that Seto has nothing to protect him from my attacks any longer..." He throws a monster onto the field from his hand. A small, orange dragon materializes and squeals like a baby when it appears fully. (1200/700/3) "My Baby Dragon only has 1200 attack points currently, but Seto has no monsters, so now, attack my ungrateful stepson's life points now!" The small dragon opens its mouth and spits a small fireball in Seto's direction, but the path of the fireball is interrupted by...
Yami holds up a card. "Not so fast, Gozuboro! My Kuribohs will protect Kaiba!" A wall of brown, hairy creatures appear in the way of the fireball that raced towards Kaiba.
Gozuboro only snickers. "And that's where you're wrong! Nothing can stop the attack of Infected Baby Dragon!"
Yami and Kaiba stare on as the fireball blasts through all the Kuribohs and hits Kaiba's life points directly. (Kaiba: 2500)
Yami looks down at his duel disk. (Yami: 2500) He snarls. "And thanks to Gozuboro's Mainframe card, I lose 1200 life points, too... taking me down to 2500 life points."
Gozuboro continues maniacally snickering to himself. "Now our scores are tied. You see that Seto? Your Crush Card isn't everything..." He puts one card into a magic/trap reader in his duel disk. "One card facedown, for now. Now move, boy."
Infuriated with his stepfather, Seto draws from his deck again. "I WILL!" He smiles at his next card, which he places onto his duel disk. He also slides a card into his duel disk. "I set one card face down and summon Cave Dragon!" A dinosaur-looking monster with a large spiked tail appears in front of Seto, and behind it, a face down hologram of a card appears at Kaiba's feet. (2000/100/4) "And since my monster can only attack if there is a dragon on the field, and your Infected Baby Dragon is a dragon itself, I can wipe it out. Cave Dragon, attack!"
The dinosaur monster lumbers closer and closer to Baby Dragon, but right when it gets close enough to swing its tail and destroy Gozuboro's monster, a large, virtual file folder comes from out of nowhere and swallows the two monsters. Kaiba stares on. "What? What was that?"
Gozuboro presses a button on his duel disk, causing his face down card to rise. "Heh. You were right about both monsters being dragons, Seto. So I set up this Search Engine trap card to take all monsters of a single type on the field and download them off the field, and I choose dragons. And if that wasn't bad enough, if I have a monster in my hand that I can summon through sacrifices of as many monsters were swallowed..."
Yami glares at Gozuboro. "...then you can summon that monster..."
Gozuboro takes a card out of his hand and throws it down on the field. "Correct, Yugi Mutou, but not just any monster. With two sacrifices, I have enough monsters to summon..." A familiar entity appears on Gozuboro's side of the field, and it glares down at Yami and Kaiba with glowing red eyes.
Gozuboro points to the sky. "ANOTHER VIRAL ONI!"
Kaiba and Yami stand back as the semi-transparent red demon monster appears in front of Gozuboro. It emits a ghastly shriek of a roar.
Kaiba stares defiantly at the monster that Gozuboro just summoned. "How many of those things do you have?!"
Gozuboro only stares down at Kaiba with a confident smirk on his face. "You of all people should know, Seto, that having three of a powerful monster is the best route to take. I thought that if you learned anything from me at all, it would be that. And besides, Viral Oni is obviously an infected monster. So why is it that you haven't discovered its special ability, hm? Allow me to answer that for you." He points to the graveyard of his duel disk, to where the card of the Viral Oni he summoned before slides out. "I have one Viral Oni in my graveyard. And when all three of my Oni monsters go to the graveyard... meheheheh... they invoke a terrifying special ability... by KILLING ALL ADVERSARIES!"
Kaiba and Yami stare back at Gozuboro in shock, then at the newly summoned Viral Oni.
Gozuboro continues his ranting. "So as soon as I lose all three of my Oni monsters, you both die, and I will be free to take my 'son's' body and infiltrate the real world! At which point, the empire of Kaibacorp will be changed back into a military factory, developing the newest and deadliest war vehicles that will bring me ULTIMATE DOMINANCE!"
Yami turns his gaze back onto Gozuboro. "You're insane if you think that you can get out of here and conquer the world, Gozuboro! Maybe in fact it was a good thing that your 'son' dethroned you before you before you could do any more damage than you had already done..." He then glares back up at the Viral Oni again. "And your Viral Oni monster can't attack Kaiba or me on your turn because at the time, it has 0 attack power, so you can't deplete our life points. However, when we get through your monster, we will defeat you, too!"
Gozuboro raises an eyebrow. "Is that what you think? Well, now that my son's turn is over, allow me to show you what my Viral Oni can do... Yugi!" The red specter lumbers forward, coming towards Yami, then reaches down with its massive red claw and slashes at Yami. He screams in pain in response. However, being a specter, the attack goes right through Yami, but still causes a great deal of pain. Yami collapses. (Yami: 1500)
Gozuboro thumbs his nose at Yami. "How about now, Yugi? Is my monster strong enough for you? For every time you end your turn and I have a Viral Oni, one of you takes 1000 points of damage!" He then glares at Seto out the corner of his eye. "Oh, and Seto, don't think you get off. Mainframe takes your life points all the same! Ahahahahaha!" (Kaiba: 1500)
Kaiba stares down at the life point counter on his duel disk and watches at the numbers lower to read "1500". "Well, dad, I think I'll take another move. Now that my turn ends, I can use my trap card! Go, Emergence of Hero!"
Yami and Seto both stare at Kaiba, attentive to the power of Kaiba's latest trap card.
Kaiba picks up a card out of his hand. "With this card, I can summon one monster that has a level that is one higher than that of another monster. And since Viral Oni is level 7, I can now summon a level 8 monster right now!" He throws a monster onto his duel disk. "Go, BLUE EYES WHITE DRAGON !" A massive blue, shiny, and sleek dragon appears flying above Kaiba. It emits a mighty roar, snarling at Gozuboro. "Blue Eyes is stronger than anything even my 'partner' could throw at you, Gozuboro, and it's the most powerful beast in the entire game!"
Gozuboro grits his teeth. "I'm not impressed, Seto. You forget that no matter how strong your Blue Eyes White Dragon is, my Viral Oni will get just as strong as soon as you launch your attack, so there's still not a move you could make to save yourselves. It's over!" He draws without looking, with unshakable confidence in his monster, then inserts a card into his duel disk in a magic/trap slot. "I end my turn without playing anything except this face-down card. It doesn't matter what you do, I have all I need to beat you already."
Yami holds the top card of his deck and slowly draws. He reluctantly turns the card so that he can see it, then stares at the card uncertainly. Huh? It's blank... What could this card be?
Kaiba glances at Yami out the corner of his eye. :::::Why did he stop? Did he mess up and not get a useful card?::::::
Yami holds the card he drew in his hand. ...Hey... wait a sec... this card looks familiar... Wait, that's it! It's-
(Flashback, Duelist Kingdom finals)
Pegasus and Yami stand at opposite ends of a dueling field, preparing to face off. Tea and Joey stare on from the balcony.
Yami holds up a blank card that looks exactly like the one he just drew. "As per your rules, here it is: Glory of the King's Opposite Hand."
(Flashback ends)
Yami continues staring at the card. :::::So, in a duel, that's what Kaiba's quarantine card was, the Glory of the King's Opposite Hand card! And if it works like I hope it does, there may just be a way to beat Viral Oni with it...::::: He slides one card into one of the magic/trap zones of his duel disk, that card being the quarantine card. "First, I sacrifice Beta and Celtic Guardian from my side of the field, allowing me to summon my all-powerful Dark Magician!" Both Yami's monsters shatter, and in their place, a purple-haired magician with a long green staff stands tall in front of Yami and stares up at Gozuboro's Viral Oni with unshakable courage in his eyes. "And now, I activate my magic card: go Glory of the King's Opposite Hand!"
Kaiba grins slightly as Yami announces the name of his card. So he figured out how to use the quarantine card I gave him...
Yami's card rises and a swirling vortex of wind kicks up. The Viral Oni twitches and squirms around as the strong winds suck it into the quarantine card. Yami grins as the card takes effect, trapping Viral Oni in the card at last, then shattering.
"Hmph, like Pegasus did in Duelist Kingdom to Yugi's grandfather, this card quarantines the soul of your Oni, removing it from play. Now you can't get all three Oni monsters to your graveyard. But... you won't get the chance to anyway, at this rate..."
Kaiba smirks clearly, still staring at Yami out the corner of his eye. :::::You think you're so clever, Yugi. But just wait until the day when we duel at last... and I am re-crowned the greatest duelist in the world... Good work Yugi. For now...:::::
Dark Magician points his staff at Gozuboro as it shines with purple. Yami points at Gozuboro, the target of the Dark Magician. "Go, Dark Magician, attack Gozuboro's life points and end this duel! Since you only have 2500 life points left, Gozuboro, this attack will be your demise!" The mage releases a ball of black lightning out his staff and fires it at Gozuboro.
(Insert Noah and Mokuba commentary here)
Unfazed, Gozuboro turns up his face down card with a press of a button on his duel disk. "Aha, sorry, Yugi, but you fell into my Recycling Bin trap card! And by sending one removed card to my graveyard, I can negate your attack and direct half your monster's attack towards your life points! And since your Dark Magician has 2500 attack points, you BOTH lose 1250 life points!" Three large green arrows appear and all point to each other in a triangle formation. The black ball of lightning bounces off these arrows and launches at Yami in a parabola over his Dark Magician and straight into Yugi. (Yugi: 1250, Kaiba: 1250)
Kaiba grits his teeth. NO! Now he has both his Oni monsters in his graveyard, and if Yugi destroys the last Oni, he'll be sorry...
Gozuboro draws a card and places one card into his duel disk. "Pot of Greed lets me draw twice, allowing me to add two cards to my hand." He draws twice, then reveals another card in his hand. "And with my Painful Choice card, you'll lose the duel! For I select 3 cards: Viral Oni, and two magic cards, called Pop-Up Ads. And when my pop up add cards go to the graveyard, they deal 500 damage to your life points. But, on the other hand, if my Oni goes to the graveyard, that'll make Oni # 3, and I'll win the duel!"
Gozuboro activates the card in his duel disk as a giant, skull-faced spinner spins and spins like a top, with three cards around it. As the top slows down, it comes to rest, and the card that it pointed to revealed itself. The Viral Oni appeared on the field as Yami and Kaiba let out a sigh of relief.
Gozuboro grins widely. "And since I sent 2 Pop-up Add cards to the graveyard, each does 500 damage to you both, PER, taking your life points to a mere 250 left... That's my move. But... since Seto has the next move, I would like to make one last test of him... I switch Viral Oni to defense mode!" The Viral Oni crouches in place, laying flat on the ground. "You see, boy, I am still curious as to what you do in this situation. If your dragon doesn't attack my Oni, you'll not be spared of its demon claw attack, and you'll have 0 life points left, as will your partner. But, if you do attack, Viral Oni will absorb only 2500 defense points from your dragon, and your dragon will send my Oni to the graveyard, at which point, my Oni monsters will destroy you both. The choice is yours, Seto."
Seto hopelessly stares at the top of his deck. "You still mock me... dad..."
Real world
Mokuba and Noah continue to watch with each intensifying moment going by.
"Something has got to happen." Mokuba says bringing a screen up on the computer. "But we sent them everything they needed. There is nothing left."
"Then I'm going in." Noah says taking off his headset and getting out of his chair.
"Wait you can't just go in there unequipped." Mokuba says to Noah, closing the window on the computer.
"I'll be equipped." Noah says pressing a few buttons on the computer.
"Don't go now. Maybe something will happen so you won't have to go after all." Mokuba says grabbing Noah's left arm. "Besides what if something happens to you and we can't get you back this time?"
"Nothing will happen to me for two reasons." Noah says getting loose from Mokuba's grip and going over to the pod. "I have you for protection and Seto, along with Yami for back up. You have to trust me."
Mokuba has no spoken words to say, but presses a button on the computer, opening another simulator pod. Noah climbs in and lies down now having the ear pods come around his ears. A few more buttons are pressed and Noah's mind has now been uploaded to the Internet.
"Good Luck Noah." Mokuba says now seeing him being created on the computer.
Virtual World
Yami stares at Seto with deep worry in his eyes. ::::Kaiba has to trust in the Heart of the Cards now... Otherwise, he'll lose the duel... We'd both lose the duel if he can't believe in himself... Come on, Kaiba...:::::::
Kaiba hopelessly draws his card and looks at it. However, his expression is not one of joy. ::::::I... I... I hate to admit it... but there's nothing more I can do. There's only one way out of this duel... and that's in a blaze of glory!::::: He shoots a glance at his hovering Blue Eyes White Dragon. "BLUE EYES, take flight and prepare to destroy his Viral Oni with your BURST STREAM ATTACK! Gozuboro, if I'm going down, I'M TAKING YOUR MONSTER WITH ME!"
Yami hopelessly stares down at the virtual floor. "It's... over..."
The Blue Eyes rises into the air, flapping its mighty glistening wings. It opens its mouth and roars loudly as it prepares to spit at the Viral Oni with a beam of lightning, but...
A small and meek voice echoes off from a distance away. "...no..."
Kaiba's eyes shoot open, right before Blue Eyes White Dragon releases its attack. "BLUE EYES, STOOOOOOP!" The dragon shuts its mouth immediately, and the lightning attack disappears.
Gozuboro and Yami look around everywhere, trying to find the source of the voice.
Gozuboro begins to panic. "No, and right as I was about to win! Why does that meddling boy have to come now?!"
The voice gets clearer. "Meddling boy? ...Now is that any way to talk to your own son? DAD?!"
Gozuboro, Yami and Seto turn in the direction of the voice, now that it's in range and is now very clear.
"No it can't be." Gozuboro stutters staring at whom he can't believe.
"I'm afraid so. It's the one and only." Noah says now coming to clear view, making a grand entrance.
"Noah?" Seto speaks with his words running dry.
"Yes Seto I came to help you and Yami and put an end to your destruction father, once and for all!" Noah yells pointing to his father.
Noah holds up his right arm, with his duel disk appearing and his cards appearing in the cardholder.
"Now do I have to stand here all day or are we going to duel?" Noah asks walking up to the side of Yami and stopping.
"Alright then." Gozuboro says eyeing the three in front of him. "You three against me, and due to the failed interruption, we are going to pick up where we left off and if I win, Noah, you have to return to cyberspace with me."
Noah growls.
"And if we win?" Yami asks.
"Then you all get to leave and I stop destroying the network." Gozuboro says rearranging his deck. "But noticing how you and Yami both are almost out of life points, I don't see either one of you getting out of here."
"That was always your problem father. You always thought of yourself as being so superior over everyone, but I'm here to show you, not everyone agrees with you, not even me." Noah says laying his cads on the surface of the duel deck in their places.
"Just as naïve as you've always been." Gozuboro chuckles getting a new set of cards. "So do we have a deal?"
Noah looks down at the virtual floor, with Yami and Seto staring at him.
"Fine we have a deal, but I'll only return with you only if you win. Now let's cut the chit chat and duel." Noah growls staring up at his father as he, Yami, and Seto get a new set of cards.
"Prepare to spend the rest of your life in Cyberspace with me." Gozuboro gloats as the duel starts again.
Will three of them defeat Gozuboro and return home or will Noah have to return to cyberspace, turning his back on the only family he loves? These questions will be answered in the next chapter of Return to Cyberspace.
Ok end of chapter 7 done. I hope you all enjoyed it and special thanks goes out to my friend Drake the Duelist, whom has provided us with this gracious duel. Thanks buddy. Chapter 8 will be up when I get a free moment. Soul sire chapter 4 has been released so please do me a favor and check it out if you haven't already.
No flames as usual and Plese review.
Thanks.