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Fanfic Chapter 120: Girl Power Pt 1: Cold Reception
Episode Basis: Freeze Play Pt 1
Previously on Yu-Gi-Oh! Yugi took up the torch when Yami was in too much pain to duel. Yugi put his faith in his Deck Master, Kuriboh, and was rewarded. Kuriboh's Deck Master Ability was to reflect a direct attack. However doing so put Kuriboh at risk of being destroyed. But it was heart that prevailed as a special warrior monster and a rainbow bridge provided Yugi with the means to finish Gansley and retain his body. Now whose next on Noah's little hit list?
Yugi gasped for breath as he ran down a never-ending hallway. "This hallway… feels like… it goes on forever," he gasped. "Will it ever end?"
"It might, but only when Noah wants it to end," Yami replied.
"But we have to find our friends," Yugi argued.
"Sorry, Yugi, but I have a different plan arranged for you," Noah said as he worked his control panel.
A hole opened up under Yugi and he fell into a vortex of light. Not again, he thought.
"That should take care of the King of Games for a while," Noah decided. "Now back to business."
"Master Noah."
"Talk to me, Crump."
"Allow me to volunteer to duel the next victim and make up for Gansley's defeat. The problem with Gansley was that he tried taking on the King of Games. All the numbers pointed to Gansley's defeat at 96 percent."
Noah leaned against the arm of his chair, "So what do you recommend?"
"Take out his closest friends first, and that will decrease his morale by 95 percent."
"Agreed, and I already have the perfect opponent in mind." He pulled up an image of Tea. "Time to say good-bye to your body, Tea, it shouldn't be too difficult to defeat her."
Tea hauled herself out of the chasm. Exhausted, she collapsed onto the ground. "I'm never taking gym class again," she moaned. "Maybe I could get in a little nap before finding… the… others." She closed her eyes and immediately fell asleep.
She was standing in a desert. The sun was at its apex but it didn't feel hot at all, in fact, she actually felt cool. She looked around and saw pyramids.
Yugi was heading towards one of them.
"Yugi," she called. "Yugi, wait up!" She started to run towards him but then she stopped. "Wait a second, I think I've had this dream before... yeah, Yugi's going to walk into a pyramid and then the whole ground disappears…" Tea freaked and gripped the ground. Yugi disappeared into the pyramid and the door shut. Tea braced for the worse.
When nothing happened, she risked opening her eyes again. She was still in the desert, but this time the pyramids had vanished. There was a strange shadow in the distance. Someone was kneeling before a large rectangular stone slab. She was crying.
There was some image on the stone tablet but Tea couldn't make it out. The young girl crying turned and looked straight at Tea. Immediately, her face was imposed by another image, an image Tea recognized.
The superimposed image was of one of Yugi's monsters, the Dark Magician Girl (1). The crying girl looked just like Dark Magician Girl. Tea gasped.
Tea moaned and opened her eyes. There was something standing over her. She opened her eyes and rubbed them.
It was a penguin.
"So I wasn't dreaming," she realized. "I really was saved by a penguin… wait a second, what's a penguin doing in the desert?"
"Whark," the Penguin spoke and turned to leave. He then stopped and turned back to Tea. "Whark," it said again.
"I guess he wants me to follow him. Maybe he can lead me to Yugi or one of the others." Tea followed the penguin through a forest. "Okay, let's review here," Tea said to her self, hoping to ease her nerves. "I'm following a virtual desert-crossing penguin to who-knows-where after being rescued by said penguin from giant one-eyed monsters. When did my life get so weird?"
Tea and her penguin guide took her to a dock where a raft awaited accompanied by more penguins. Four penguins were balancing the raft as Tea and the penguin got on. The raft was pushed out as the penguins on the dock waved good-bye.
They drifted for what seemed like forever.
"Excuse me, Mister Penguin, but where exactly are you taking me?"
"Whark!"
"That's what I was afraid you would say." Suddenly the penguin dove into the water. The others followed suite. "Hey wait! Was it something I said?" Tea's raft stopped on a large ice flow with an equally large castle on top of a hill.
Penguins, there were penguins as far as the eye could see.
"What is this place?" Tea asked as she stepped off the raft. Since the only route not covered by penguins was the staircase. She followed it into the ice castle. There were even more penguins inside the castle. "Hello, is anyone here?"
"Of course, just look around you," an unknown gruff male voice said.
"I know that, I mean is there anyone here without a beak and flippers!"
"Nope, nobody here but us penguins."
"Who are you?"
"You don't need to know that just yet, Tea. Oh yes, I know a lot about you. Name: Tea Gardner, age: 16, height: five-six, weight: 120."
"Hey, that's personal!"
"You want to get personal, I'll get personal!" Tea followed the sound of the voice around the penguins. "A wanna-be dancer who secretly works at a burger joint to make money, not very healthy if you ask me. It seems you are quite affectionate towards someone who saved your life… or tried to at any rate."
How does he know so much about me? Tea wondered. Some of this stuff I wouldn't even tell Yugi. "Tell me who you are."
The sea of penguins parted to reveal a giant penguin in a tuxedo and top hat sitting at a table looking over a clipboard. "The name's Crump, former accountant at Kaiba Corp. and one of the Big-5!"
"So the Big-5 aren't just targeting Duelists, they're targeting everybody!"
"Quiet, I need to look over these numbers. Let's see… according to my calculations, there's a one hundred percent chance that we're going to duel! And my notes also tell me that you've dueled five times and once professionally which gives you a one percent chance of actually winning this duel!"
"And what makes you such an expert on me?" Tea asked.
"I need to know everything about you so when I take over your body, I can live as you. And once I do, I'll start a campaign to make penguins the second-most dominant species on the planet next to humans." The penguins burst into applause from that.
"I don't know if you're sick, deranged, perverted, or all three," Tea said. "I'm out of here!" But as she turned to leave, the entire ground started to shake. The virtual world transformed around her as the ice castle deteriorated into a small iceberg. Crump appeared on another iceberg twenty feet from her. A Duel Disk appeared on her arm.
"You're going to duel me whether you like it or not." Cards started to scroll up in front of her. "First thing you need to do is pick a deck from these cards in Noah's virtual card database."
How can I choose the correct cards to use when I haven't even seen most of these cards? Tea actually recognized a few cards from Yugi's deck and she picked them as well as some chance ones.
"Next, you need to choose your Deck Master."
"That's easy," Tea said. A woman with blonde hair wearing a light blue outfit and pink skirt with a strange headdress carrying a scepter appeared. "Dark Magician Girl will be my Deck Master."
"Two girls for the price of one duel," Crump said with a perverted glare. "This must be my lucky day."
Tea just gave him the evil eye, "Just choose your Deck Master."
"I've already taken the form of a Deck Master known as Nightmare Penguin (2) you fool! And once you feel its immense power, you'll fall before me!"
"No way," Tea said activating her Duel Disk, "Time to duel, shorty!"
(T: 4000)
(C: 4000)
Yugi found himself in a room with four doors with a number of stars over the threshold. "Where are we now," Yugi wondered as he headed towards one of the doors.
"Yugi, wait," Yami called halting Yugi's advance. "Something about this doesn't seem right. We should probably test the door for booby trap."
"All right." Yugi took out a coin and threw it in the direction of one of the doors. A monster appeared and bopped the coin right back at Yugi hitting him in the head with it.
"Ow," Yugi winced. "Testing doors is definitely smart."
"We may have won our duel, but a whole new game has begun."
"Stand back, Pengie," Tea said as she drew a card. She recognized it as the trap card Mirror Force. "I place one card face-down and summon the Ancient Elf (3) in attack mode!"
"Let's see, the monster with the best odds to defeat her elf would be… ah-ha! The Giant Red Seasnake (4)! My Deck Master ability raises the attack of all water monsters by 200 points."
(GRS: 1800-2000)
As soon as he attacks, I'll activate my trap card and then I can get a lead over him. But she noticed that he wasn't making and movements to attack, he was staring at her face-down card (at least she hope it was the face-down card he was staring at). "Well, aren't you attacking?"
"You think I was hatched yesterday? An accountant knows to look at all the figures and to ignore your face-down card, which is obviously a trap card, would be a foolish mistake, unless I play this card: the magic card Cold Wave which freezes all magic and traps on the field for one turn. Now my Giant Red Seasnake will attack your elf and destroy it!" The giant snake burrowed right through the elf.
(T: 3450)
(C: 4000)
Tea's feet were suddenly encased in ice.
"What's going on?" Tea asked.
"As we each lose life points, our bodies will be encased in ice. Soon you'll be nothing but a frozen block of ice floating around Noah's virtual world for all eternity!"
"Cold… it's cold."
Yugi heard Tea's voice, shivering. "Tea!" He ran forward, "Hang on, Tea, I'll save…" but he was knocked back by the monster guarding the door.
"Yugi, are you all right?" Yami asked.
"Yeah, but we can't go anywhere until we get passed that monster. But by then, Tea could be…"
"Calm down, Yugi." Yami gestured to the single star above the door. "Do you see the single star above the door?"
Yugi immediately made the connection, "Of course, in the game of Duel Monsters, the star represents the level on the monster so all I have to do is draw a monster with more stars." He drew the top card from his deck. "I call forth the Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress (5)!" A blue dragon appeared. "Fireball attack!" The dragon blasted the monster and the way was cleared. The door opened. "We did it!"
"Hurry, there's no time to waste." Yugi and Yami ran through the door.
"What's wrong, Tea, don't tell me you're getting cold feet."
"Ve… very funny," Tea stuttered as she drew her card. "I set a monster in defense mode and end my turn."
"Doesn't look like you've dressed for the weather," Crump joked. "Unlike me, who thrives in the cold." He drew a card, "Now let's see… this one looks good… then again, these could make a dangerous combination… which to choose… so many options."
"Will you just move already!" Tea snapped, the cold rapidly draining her patience.
"I'll take my time, thank you very much, as an accountant I take the time to weigh my options and their chances of victory. That's how I role, by numbers and statistics. Take your Deck Master for instance, she isn't much of a threat by herself, but if you add other cards to her she can become quite a threat."
"Huh, what do you mean?"
"You amateur! Don't tell me you chose your cards with no base strategy. This is going to be easier than I thought. I place two cards face-down and end my turn."
Why didn't he attack? He clearly has the advantage. He must be up to something. Tea drew a card, "I play the magic card Mystical Space Typhoon. This magic card can destroy one of your magic or trap cards." Crump's Mirror Wall was destroyed.
"You feel right into my trap," Crump said. "I reveal my face-down card, Driving Snow. This trap cards can reveal one of your trap cards and destroys it." Tea's face-down Mirror Force was destroyed. "So it was Mirror Force, eh? A rookie mistake and now that you're unprotected I'm free to attack you on my next turn."
This isn't good, Tea thought. If I don't get rid of his monster soon, I could lose the duel. She reached for her card but her arm was shaking from the cold.
"Tea." A thin hand was placed over Tea's.
Tea looked towards Dark Magician Girl. She had forgotten that the female monster was there, "Was that you?"
"Yes, my Deck Master ability allows us to communicate telepathically. I can help you win this duel, but you have to trust me."
"If Yugi trusts you, then I'll trust you too," Tea returned. Tea allowed the Dark Magician Girl to guide her hand over her deck and draw a card. "Yes, I play Tribute to the Doomed!" Crump's snake was ensnared in bandages. "Looks like I got this all wrapped up, Crump," Tea kidded as the monster was dragged under. "Next I'll flip summon my face-down monster, Fire Sorcerer (6)!" A girl with long blonde hair in a black dress appeared. She emitted fire from her hands which Tea used to warm herself. "That's more like it, next I'll discard two cards to activate Fire Sorcerer's special ability, taking away 800 points from your life points."
(T: 3450)
(C: 3200)
Crump let out a squawk as his flippers were lit on fire. "Finally, I'll have my Fire Sorcerer attack your life points directly! Southern-Fried Penguin anyone?" Crump was sizzled but still standing.
(T: 3450)
(C: 2200)
Crump's feet and legs (or what he had for legs) was encased in ice. "How do you like a taste of your own medicine?" Tea retorted.
"I like it just fine, thank you very much," Crump retorted. "I'm a penguin, remember? And penguins thrive in cold temperature."
"Yeah, that reminds me, I've got a question. What's with this penguin obsession?"
My parents were always too busy arguing to pay attention to me, so I used to stay up in my room and count things. I would count the cracks in the ceiling, the bugs on the wall, even the hairs on my cat's hairball. One day, I was counting books in our library when I discovered an open book on penguins. That book opened my eyes. I learned that penguin parents took turns sitting on their eggs and was devoted to their young, unlike my own parents. From then on, my entire life was devoted to my two loves: counting and penguins. It was my one dream to one day open a theme park entirely devoted to penguins.
I worked my way up the Kaiba Corp. ladder becoming chief accountant to its new CEO, Seto Kaiba. One day I proposed my dream theme park. But Kaiba had other thoughts…
"A penguin theme park? That's got to be the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard. We're a game company, not a petting zoo. Stick to what you're good at, Crump, counting."
"That punk shot down my dream, but once I return to the real world in your body, I'll finally have my revenge!"
"You haven't won yet, bird-brain," Tea said.
Crump drew a card. "With this card, I may as well have. I summon Flying Penguin (7). And with a little help from my Deck Master ability."
(FP: 1200-1400)
"And the magic card Penguin Sword…"
(FP: 1400-2200)
"I'll be enjoying your body in no time. Flying Penguin, attack her sorcerer with penguin sword!" The penguin swung its sword and stabbed Fire Sorcerer in the chest, disintegrating her."
(T: 2250)
(C: 2200)
The ice moved up her legs to her knees.
"I… I'm freezing!"
Yugi entered a room that looked like the one he just exited. "Tea's in danger, we have to find her right now!"
"Yugi, wait," Yami said. "Look down at the ground."
Yugi looked down and saw the coin he threw at the door earlier. "It's the coin I just threw! We've been going around in circles this whole time, and now we're back where we started! How can we save Tea now?"
To Be Continued
Duel Monster Database
(1)
Name: Dark Magician Girl
Level: 6
Type: Spellcaster/Effect
Attribute: Dark
ATK: 2000
DEF: 1700
Deck Master Ability: Soul Circle: Once per game, activate this Deck Master Ability to see a number of cards on the top of your deck equal to the number of monsters in your Graveyard. Then, select 1 card, add the selected card to your hand, and return the remaining cards from your deck to your deck in the same order.
(2)
Name: Nightmare Penguin
Level: 4
Type: Aqua/Effect
Attribute: Water
ATK: 900
DEF: 1400
Deck Master Ability: Tidal Rush: Raise the ATK of all water monsters on your side of the field by 200 points.
(3)
Name: Ancient Elf
Level: 4
Type: Spellcaster
Attribute: Light
ATK: 1450
DEF: 1200
(4)
Name: Giant Red Seasnake
Level: 4
Type: Aqua
Attribute: Water
ATK: 1800
DEF: 800
(5)
Name: Winged Dragon Guardian of the Fortress #1
Level: 4
Type: Dragon
Attribute: Wind
ATK: 1400
DEF: 1200
(6)
Name: Fire Sorcerer
Level: 4
Type: Spellcaster/Effect
Attribute: Fire
ATK: 1000
DEF: 1500
(7)
Name: Flying Penguin
Level: 4
Type: Aqua
Attribute: Water
ATK: 1200
DEF: 1000