"Seto," Mokuba called out. "We have serious trouble. According to the computer, Edric just revealed that there's a bomb underneath the mansion!"
"A bomb?" Kaiba, who was trying to pick the lock on Edric's door, asked. "Are you sure?"
"Positive."
"We need to get in there now!" Tristan declared lowering the visor on his helmet. "Everybody stand back." He popped a wheelie and with an incredible burst of speed, drove his motorcycle right into the doors with such incredible force that he broke them down. "I always wanted to do that, everyone inside now. Kaiba, can your computer detect where in the mansion they're dueling?"
"It's not that specific," Mokuba said speaking for his brother.
"Well if I was a snake-computer nerd like Masters, I'd do all my dueling in the basement," Joey said. Tristan got off his motorcycle and walked it into the mansion. The group arrived at the spacious kitchen.
"Let's split up and look for anything leading down," Bakura suggested. Everyone searched through the ground floor.
"Man, that Edric guy lives in pretty swanky place," Joey commented peeking inside a library.
"Let's just hope Yugi can keep him from activating that bomb before we find Tea," Tristan said.
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"A time bomb, are you serious?"
"Dead serious, if you'll pardon the accidental pun. The foundation of this very house is built on a super-explosive time bomb, and the trigger is tied directly into my life point counter. Thirty seconds after my life point counter reaches 0, my bomb will explode taking everything within this house!"
"But you'll be destroyed too!" Yugi argued.
"Oh, I'm not worried about that. You see, Yugi Moto, if I can't win, then nobody wins. It was how I was going to finish off Seto Kaiba after I take over his company but I guess I'll just have to settle for finishing you off."
"You want to take over Kaiba Corp.?"
"Oh, didn't your little girlfriend tell you? I needed to test my cards and new Duel Disk out on someone, who better than the champion of Duelist Kingdom and Battle City. And just like you, Kaiba will eventually fall at my feet and there's nothing you or he or anyone can do about it."
"Edric, stop hiding behind your tricks and finish this duel with what little dignity you have left!"
"Oh please, you don't fight with dignity so why should I?"
Edric's totally caught up in his own fantasy world, Yugi realized. Trying to convince him to fight fair will be tougher than trying to convince Kaiba to trust the heart of the cards. A sharp pain erupted from Yugi's back. The glow around his body dimmed for a second. Yami must be losing strength; he can't hold back the pain much longer. If I attack, he'll blow that bomb taking me and Tea with it. But if I don't attack, he wins the duel anyway and who knows what he'll do to Tea. I can't win either way!
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"Guys, come quickly, I found something!" Bakura shouted. The others saw Bakura standing by a doorway that looked like it was built into the wall.
"A secret passageway, you think there's something he doesn't want us to see?"
"There's only one way to find out," Kaiba said. "Let's go."
"Bakura and I will stay up here and guard our escape route," Tristan volunteered.
"All right, let's go, guys." Joey, Kaiba, Mokuba, and Mai all descended into the passageway. The four passed by Edric's waiting room and continued until they came to a metal door.
"Dead end, any ideas?" Joey asked.
"You seem to be the one with the ideas," Kaiba pointed out.
"All right, give me a minute, I'm thinking."
"That bomb could blow by the time you're done thinking."
Mai noticed that Mokuba was sliding his hand along the wall. "Mokuba, what are you doing?"
"I'm trying to find a circuit breaker. A techno geek like Edric must have tons of them in a place like this..." Mokuba ripped open a panel and found one. "Jackpot!" Mokuba took out a rather bulky-looking control device. "Okay, I'm tapping into the main power now."
"Wait a second, for all we know, we could be walking into a trap."
"I'll be able to cut power for a couple of seconds. Any longer and the backup system might kick in. Try to stake out the place as much as you can." The three older people nodded. "Okay, I'm cutting power... now." The lights went dim. Red emergency lights clicked on. Joey and Kaiba slid the door to the side.
It was a little bit lighter inside the dueling arena, because the Holographic emitter lights were displaying all kinds of monsters.
Because he had a better view point than Edric, Yugi immediately saw the two heads peeking through the door. It was Joey and Kaiba. Yugi had to let them know where Tea was.
"I don't know what your game is, Edric, with turning off the lights like this, but I promise that I won't let you succeed. I'll free Tea from that prison you set her in or die trying!" For added emphasis, he pointed to the prison that Tea was in.
"Then I guess you'll just have to die then, Yugi."
"I'm going to switch back on the power now," Mokuba whispered. Kaiba and Joey ducked their heads out of the room as Mokuba restored the power.
Yugi was struggling against the pain. Yami couldn't hold it back much longer. Eventually, the pain would overwhelm the both of them. But because it was Yugi who's in the body right now, he would feel the blunt of it. He hoped that the others could rescue Tea while he kept Edric distracted.
"So, any ideas?" Joey asked again.
"I have one," Mokuba said. "I can shut off the power enough to get two of you into the room where he's holding Tea. But you'll have to be quick about it. I think Edric's security system is onto me. It might override my control any minute. So which two will it be?"
"I'd say Joey and Kaiba, they're the fastest of us."
"Okay. Seto, Joey, are you two ready?" The two nodded. "Okay, I'm shutting the power off... now."
"What the heck?" Edric asked as the lights went out again. "Something's not right."
"Afraid of the dark, Masters?"
"You, you must be doing this! Tell me how you're cutting my power."
"In all honesty, Edric, I have no idea what's happening to your power."
"You lie! Tell me what you're doing now!"
"I'm doing nothing." Yugi could hear the pitter-patter of feet.
Joey and Kaiba moved aside the broken door and snuck into Tea's cell.
Since it was pitch black, Tea couldn't see who entered her prison. "Who's there?" She whispered.
"Be quiet, will 'ya, Tea?"
"Joey, is that you?"
"None other; hold on, I'll get you out of here."
"Forget it; I think these bonds are magnetically sealed."
"Electronically sealed is more likely," Kaiba said. "They must be on a battery, that's why Tea wasn't free when Mokuba first cut the power."
"Kaiba, you're here too?"
"You're complaining?"
"Not in the least." Kaiba took off his communication pin and ran his hand along a wire at the bottom. He stabbed the pin into the wire. There was a hiss as Tea's bonds opened and dropped her unceremoniously on the floor.
Yugi and Edric could hear the thump. Yugi had to keep talking to distract Edric. "It's not too late, Edric. We can still put all this behind us and start over as friends." Edric snickered. "I know how you feel, believe me. I used to believe the same as you do, but someone gave me the chance and now I have lots of friends. It can be the same for you. I'm giving you a chance, will you take it?"
"You're giving me a chance? Hah! You missed your calling, Yugi Moto, you should've been a comedian. Since you probably didn't hear me the first couple of times, I'll tell you again. Friendship is just an excuse the weak use to give their miserable lives meaning. I have found my purpose in life all by myself, without any help. And do you know what that purpose is, Yugi? That purpose is to lead the world in technology development, to snuff out patchwork monstrosities like Kaiba-Corp, and to make poor naïve Duelists like you bow down to me and the wonder of technology. Do you know what I and Machina have in common, Yugi?"
"You both have big heads?"
"Funny, but wrong, we are both gods of machines!"
Edric has totally lost it, Yugi thought. His delusions of grandeur are worse than Kaiba's. This is all about him trying to make everyone else bow down to him. But that never works out. It didn't work for Marik, for Gozaburo, for Noah, for the Big 5, for Anubis, or any of the other enemies that I have faced over the years. Forcing others to do what you want them to do only proves how much of a bully one is. But Edric doesn't believe that, he wants to take over Kaiba-Corp. and beat down all Duelists that he thinks are evil, which are all Duelists knowing him. But things are never that easy and he has to realize it! What's evil is not always evil. Marik and Kaiba are examples of that. From the look in Edric's eyes, it would be hopeless trying to befriend him. I guess I have no choice. I have to protect Tea. "Edric, I..." Pain suddenly erupted into Yugi's body and he dropped to his hands and knees.
"Yugi, quick, switch with me, I'll take the pain for you."
"No, no, I can handle it," Yugi murmured back. Standing again, he said out loud, "I gave you a chance, Edric, I didn't want to do this, but... but now I'm going to have to beat you!"
"You wish! Thirty seconds after my life point counter reach 0, the time bomb will activate then everything here will go up in flames! And if this place goes up, so does your precious Tea."
The lights came back on, the power free from Mokuba's temporary control. "You sure about that?" Yugi asked. Edric saw Joey with Tea on his back and Kaiba just retreating to the hallway along with Mokuba and Mai.
"NO!" Edric snapped.
"You see, Edric, it pays to have friends."
"You tricked me! Somehow, you tricked me!"
"There was no trick involved. They chose to rescue her without telling me. And now that Tea's safe, I can finally put a stop to you once and for all!"
"You can't! If this bomb goes off, you'll be killed!"
"As long as my friends are safe, I don't care what happens to me!"
Yugi's insane! His friends are really more important than his life? This doesn't make any sense! It's illogical! "Your friends are in more trouble than you are, Yugi, once I activate my security system."
"You have a security system? So why didn't you use it before when I first entered this place?"
"Simple, I wanted the chance to duel you. However, your friends are fair game!"
"No, Edric, don't kill them!"
"Too late," Garrick said as he pressed a button on his remote control.
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Tristan yawned, "Guard duty is boring," he told Bakura.
"Um... Tristan, I don't think you should've said that." Tristan looked around and saw multiple lasers with mini cameras pop out of the wall and aim at them.
"Oh no, they locked onto us!"
"No, they haven't, not yet anyway. Those lasers need line of sight to fire," Bakura said taking a trap card out of his dueling deck. "But they can't fire what they can't see. Enervating Mist!" Immediately the room was covered in purple smoke. The lasers tried to lock on to their target but couldn't. "This trap card won't hold them off for long."
Tristan growled, "Where are they?"
"Tristan, did you eat bean burritos again?" Joey asked as the others came up.
"That's the only thing keeping us from being fried." Tristan patted his motorcycle. "Put Tea on here." Tea, on the verge of complete exhaustion from lack of food, sleep, and the extreme stress, got onto the back of Tristan's motorcycle and Tristan revved it up. He rode out with her with the others following suite.
Bakura was the last one out. He took out one of his effect monsters. "Morphing Jar, come forth!" His Millennium Ring started to glow and a black shadow destroyed most of the lasers.
"Tea, are you all right?" Tristan asked once they were outside.
"She needs to be brought to a hospital," Mai said.
"Yugi... he's back in there, we... we have to go get him." Tea said hoarsely.
"Mai, take care of Tea," Tristan said. "Joey, Bakura, let's go."
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"How... how can all my great plans just blow up like that...? I thought my plan was foolproof."
"You're the fool, Masters," Yugi said sounding a bit like Yami for a minute. "You thought you were just dealing with me. But when you kidnapped Tea, you didn't just provoke me into action, but all of Tea's friends! Our friendship has proven stronger than your technology! And now that my friends are safe, I'm ready to make sure you don't pull anything like this ever again!"
"No!"
"Yes! I play the spell card Brave Attack! This allows all my monsters to attack your Machine God."
"But none of your monsters have enough attack power to counter Machina. Thanks to the Morale Boost, it's now 1000 points stronger."
(M,tMG: 13200)
"Yes, but I'll play my final card: Soul Release! Part of Machina's attack power comes from how many monster cards the controller has in his graveyard, so I'm going to remove that advantage. The monsters I choose to remove from the graveyard are... Robolady, Cyber Commander, Mechanicalchaser, D.D. Scout Plane, and Cyber Raider! That means you lose 2500 attack points!"
(M,tMG: 13200---10700)
"Now, all monsters, attack Machina now!" The Dark Magician fired a blast of purple energy from his staff. The Battleguards swung their clubs. Harpie Lady slashed with her talons, Vorse Raider threw his weapon, the Man-Eating Treasure Chest fired crystals at it and the Magician of Faith dug her staff into the ground and sent an underground energy blast to Machina.
Machina exploded with such an incredible force, that it blew both Duelists back and made cracks form in the wall.
(Y: 2500)
(E: 0)
The Duel was over, Yugi had won.
Yugi collapsed to his knees. The pain, the exhaustion, and the relief were all coming at him at the same time.
"You did it, Yugi, you won the Duel, plus it was you who saved Tea's life. It's all just like you promised." Yugi just smiled.
"My machines, my glorious, glorious machines, they all failed me!"
"Hey Edric," Yugi called. "If you want to think machines are better than people, then go right ahead, that's your choice. But it's like what I was trying to say earlier, I don't care about glory, fame, or titles; I only care about saving my friends. That's my belief, and nobody can make me change that."
"No, no, no! Machines are perfection, they are invincible, there's no way human emotions can triumph over the omniscient machine!" It sounded to Yugi that Edric was trying to convince himself that more than he was trying to convince Yugi.
"Edric, it's over."
"Yes, it's over," Edric agreed as he removed his Duel Disk. "Over for you!" He showed his Duel Disk's life point counter which was counting backwards from 19.
"Oh no, he's actually going to do it! Edric, let's get out of here!"
"Oh, you're not going anywhere, Yugi Moto. I intend to blow you up along with this mansion."
"You're crazy! You'll be blown up too."
"Oh, will I?" The floor around Edric began descending. "Like I said, if I can't win, then nobody wins! Farewell, Yugi Moto!" A hatch closed up after him.
"NO!" Yugi cried lunging for the escape hatch but failing it to reach him in time. He turned and staggered to the exit but that slid shut and no matter how hard Yugi try; he couldn't push or slide it open. He collapsed to his knees and looked up and smiled with sad eyes. "Oh well, at least Tea's safe. As long as she is safe, I can give up on life with peace of mind."
"Never give up on life, Yugi, it's one of the best experiences you'll ever have."
Yugi's eyes closed so he was unaware that a familiar black shroud was forming around him. "You're right, Yami, you're right."
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The house exploded, mostly upward, but the blast still blew everyone back towards the street. When the dust cleared, rubble, foliage, and debris were everywhere.