Disclaimer: We still don't own any of the characters or cards from the show, or real life. We still wish that we did.
Warning: This fic will (eventually) contain scenes of violence and some strong language. You have been warned
Last time:
Joey and Serenity were enjoying a normal day at the zoo, and even met a new duelist name Brian who recognized Joey. While exploring the bat exhibit with their new companion though, Joey was shoved into the exhibit and had a nasty fall! While Serenity went to get help with another witness to the event, Brian went down after Joey.
It turns out that Brian was responsible for Joey falling, and he seems to have some strange powers. He challenges Joey to a duel at the bottom of the exhibit, and takes field advantage early on. Now he's playing a strange spell called the Elemental Seal of Darkness! There could be more to this duelist than Joey realizes…
Chapter 2Shadow's End
Brian began to laugh again as his monsters started to absorb the shadow energy surrounding the field.
"Time I explained my card's effects." Brian stated, "First, every creature of darkness that I control will gain 200 attack points!"
The creatures opposite from Joey started to change slightly. Vampire Lady's fangs started to drip with blood and her eyes turned into black pools as the same black tattoo as Brian's appeared on her body! The same thing was happening to the Warwolf and Mystic Tomato as the wolf warrior let out a ferocious howl, its fur becoming longer and wilder and the tomato's tongue became forked.
"The seal has other powers that I'll explain later, for now let's just keep the duel moving okay? I'll sacrifice the Mystic Tomato (1600/1100) to summon Mefist the Infernal General (2000/600)!" Brian declared.
A huge, armored man carrying an equally large axe, and riding on a black horse materialized on the field in place of the tomato!
"Mefist, attack his Battle Warrior (700/1000) now with Glaive of Destruction!" Brian ordered.
The armored man wasted no time charging forward and bringing its huge poleaxe down onto the head of the blue skinned fighter, which immediately burst into sparks!
Joey LP: 7000
Brian LP: 8000
Joey stumbled backward as he felt the shockwaves of the attack hit him and blow a card out of his hand and into the graveyard slot on his disk!
"Hey what gives?" He shouted.
"Like it Wheeler?" Brian laughed, "The powers of this field spell far surpass any of Kaiba Corps technology, because on this field the monsters and their attacks become real! Now as for your LP, Mefist can damage you, even if the monster he beats is in defense mode. Plus, whenever he does damage, one card is randomly sent from your hand to the graveyard. Oh, and thanks to him I have a clear shot at your life points! Vampire Lady (1750/1550)! Pitch Black Warwolf (1800/600)! Attack now!"
As the two monsters bore down on him, Joey quickly pressed a button on his duel disk to flip over his facedown card.
"Nice try, but I'll use my face down card…" Joey started.
"Don't bother!" Brian shouted, "With my Warwolf in play you can't use traps during the battle phase!"
"Who said this was a trap? I activate my Scapegoats card to protect myself from your monsters!" He announced.
Now four fluffy Scapegoat tokens (0/0) were on the field between Joey and the attacking monsters, which quickly ripped two of the little lambs apart.
Brian sighed.
"Why did you bother with those obnoxious tokens? On my next turn, Mefist will just tear through them and into your life points."
"That may be true, but these little guys just bought me the little bit of extra time that I'm going to need." Joey explained.
"Not to mention, they'll keep these real monsters from doing some real damage to me!" Joey said to himself.
Brian just sighed again as he waved his hand, signaling the end of his turn.
Joey quickly drew his next card and smiled as he held it up.
"All right! Seal of Darkness, prepare to meet my Mystical Space Typhoon!"
A huge blast of wind began to spread across the field, completely surrounding both duelists. As the storm died down Joey found that the field was still surrounded by an impenetrable veil of shadows!
"Oh no! Don't tell me that this seal card is immune to my spells!" Joey shouted.
"Actually," Brian chuckled, "it's immune to spells, traps, monster effects, and for that matter everything! It can't be removed from the field unless I want to remove it!"
"Any particular reason you're being so intense right now?" Joey asked, "A minute ago you said you hate using to scare tactics and stuff like that and now your trying to intimidate me!"
Brian blinked in surprise.
"I don't know what it is," Brian said, "but whenever I play this seal I feel a strange intensity build up in me. Makes me feel a bit more confident."
Brian shrugged and looked around confines of the seal.
"That, and I'm probably a little overexcited taking on one of the top duelists in the world, so you'll excuse me if I seem a bit…intense." Brian apologized
"Yeah. I guess." Joey said.
Joey looked at his hand and held up another card.
"Time for a new hand. I play Card Destruction." He said.
Each duelist quickly discarded and prepared to draw a new set of cards. Just before Joey could, however, he saw a shadow move over his deck and slide a card into his graveyard!
"HEY!" Joey shouted at Brian, "I saw that!"
"Whatever do you mean?" Brian asked.
"I mean, you just used some freaky shadow power to get rid of a card in my deck!" Joey shouted at Brian, "And since you touched my deck without permission from me or a card, that means you automatically lose for cheating!"
Brian shook his head. "Let me set you straight Joey. I never cheat. I did have permission to send those cards to your graveyard."
"From who?" Joey asked.
Brian's shadow suddenly separated from the ground again and stood up next to its master.
"From my seal of course." Brian explained, "You just played Card Destruction, and I had one monster in my hand. My seal lets me discard the top card from your deck for every monster I lose from my hand or deck because of one of your cards. So one monster, one card. I didn't want to be bothered coming over to you though, so I just sent my shadow in to take care of it."
The shadow nodded and flattened itself against the ground again.
"Now then, I believe we each need to draw a new set of cards." Brian stated.
"You could have just asked me to discard them." Joey grumbled as he drew his cards.
Upon seeing his hand though, he immediately began to smile.
"Let me see, I think I'll play the spell card Reasoning!" He announced.
Now, eight duel monster cards began to float around Joey.
"Here's what happens, first you pick a monster level, then I draw until I find a monster. If it's the level you picked then I discard it, but if it's a different level I summon it. Now choose." He ordered.
Brian thought for a minute, then nodded.
"Four!" He shouted.
"Okay then. Here I go!" Joey said as he began to draw.
Joey picked up his top card and grinned as he held it up, revealing one of the strongest creatures in his deck.
"Your turn to take some damage! My first card was the Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000) which is a level seven monster! So I'll summon him, and I'll lay these two cards face down."
The shadows around Joey's feet began to swirl and a huge black dragon with piercing red eyes slowly rose out of the ground as the cards around the lucky duelist faded away.
"Now it's time for you to face one of my creatures of darkness!" Joey yelled, "I could destroy your Vampire, but I was always taught it ain't nice to hit a girl. And since your Warwolf's (1800/600) effect seems pretty dangerous, I'll take him out first!"
The giant dragon opened its mouth and released a huge blast of fire which quickly incinerated Brian's wolf and a chunk of his life points! Brian jumped back as the flames that weren't stopped by his monster licked at his body a little.
Joey LP: 7000
Brian LP: 7400
"My tu…" Brian started to say as he drew.
Suddenly a strange looking hose slid out of his graveyard and sucked a card from his hand, pulling it into his disk!
"What the hell was that!" Brian shouted.
Joey smiled. Next to him appeared the image of a card, with a picture of a huge vacuum cleaner sucking up a pile of cards.
"Oh, did I forget to mention that the card Mefist sent to the graveyard was a new spell called Hand Vacuum? It's new, and pretty conditional, but I'll explain it. See, its effect only works as long as it was sent right from my hand to my graveyard by one of your cards. As long as it's in my graveyard, you lose a random card from your hand each standby phase. It's a little trick I copied from Marik Ishtar in our Battle City duel only I'm relying a little more on your 'help' for it to work!" Joey explained
"Oh yeah!" He thought, "It was a gamble putting that in my deck, but looks like it will pay off big time for me!"
Joey's smile suddenly faded as a shadow suddenly moved over his deck, sliding out a card and putting it in his own graveyard.
Now Brian smiled.
"Did you forget about the other power of my seal so early Joey? Your card got rid of one of my monsters so you lose the top card of your deck. Oh and the card that went to my graveyard because of your little spell, was one that you're going to wish had stayed in my hand." Brian laughed.
Suddenly, a gravestone began to rise from the ground in front of Brian, and a large black and red shadow followed it. Soon the shadow loomed over Joey and his dragon.
Brian threw back his head in maniacal laughter.
"Ha Ha Ha Ha! Prepare yourself Joey! Now you face a true creature of darkness which far surpasses the power of your dragon! Behold my Despair from the Dark (3000/3000)!" The dark duelist laughed.
Joey just stared up at the huge dark beast, and gulped.
"Aw crud. How am I supposed to beat that!"
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Serenity stopped and leaned against a bench, pushing her hair out of her eyes as she tried to catch her breath.
"I can't stop now!" She thought, "I need to help Joey!"
She looked over at the girl who had been with her since she left the bat exhibit.
Outside of the exhibit's gloom, she could now see this girl had brown hair, going almost to the back of her knees but held in a ponytail by a hair clip. She was wearing white shorts and a yellow t-shirt, along with white sneakers. She looked up at Serenity, with a look of concern on her face.
"Are you okay?" She asked, "If you keep running in this weather you're going to overheat."
"I'm fine…uhh…" Serenity started to respond. She then realized she didn't know this girl's name.
The girl reached up and removed her hair clip.
"My name is Celeste Hikari." She introduced herself, "Here take this. It will keep your hair out of your face and help you keep cool."
Serenity took the clip and looked at it. It was shaped like an oval, with a six winged angelic figure on it holding a green stone. The clip itself had a silver shine to hit.
"Thank you. I'm Serenity, by the way." Serenity said as she clipped her hair into a quick pony tail, "Now come on, Joey needs our help!"
The girls ran off again, but as they did the crystal in the hair clip began to shimmer with a dull light.
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Joey stared at the towering shadow beast before him as Brian flashed a devious smile at the blond duelist.
"You like it Wheeler? That monster is really quite handy. And I was able to summon him thanks to that card of yours!" Brian said.
Joey snapped out of his terrified state.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
Brian pointed at his monster.
"This was the card Hand Vacuum sent to my graveyard. And when Despair from the Dark (3000/3000) goes directly from my hand to the graveyard because of one of your cards; I can immediately special summon it to the field. Now he'll take care of that dragon of yours! Despair from the Dark attack his Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000) with Shadow Claw Assault!"
The giant shadow raised its hand and prepared to bring it down on Joey's monster when suddenly a small winged creature in a black mask appeared on the field holding a red die that was as big as it was. Joey smiled.
"That's twice you forgot about my facedown cards!" He yelled, "This one's called Skull Dice and whatever he rolls on that die; we multiply it by 100 and subtract it from your monsters' attack!"
Now the red die was thrown to the ground where it bounced for a second before settling on a six.
Brian just shook his head as his monsters all shrank a little.
"So it will be a draw." He stated, "No problem for me."
Joey smiled. "Don't forget about my other face down card. Activate Metalmorph! It raises my Red Eyes' attack and defense by 300 points!"
The Red Eyes Black Dragon was quickly covered in a metallic black sheen and it let out a frightening roar!
"Red Eyes (2700/2300) counter attack and destroy that Despair from the Dark (2400/3000)!" Joey ordered.
The metallic dragon blasted Brian's monster with a flash of red energy and the shadow quickly vanished along with its gravestone.
Joey LP: 7000
Brian LP: 7100
Brian winced as his monster was destroyed.
"Shoot!" He thought, "I've got nothing! I'll have to bluff…"
"I'll switch both of my remaining monsters to defense mode and lay this card face down. That's it." Brian declared
Vampire Lady knelt, and Mefist turned his steed so its side faced Joey.
Joey nodded and drew a new card.
"Now things are in my favor again." He said, "And I plan to keep them that way with this: My Big Bang Shot spell card! This will increase the attack of my dragon by 400 and let it damage through defense like Mefist. Speaking of which Red Eyes (4100/2300) attack and destroy Mefist (2000/600) now!"
"Crud! He didn't fall for it!" Brian thought frantically.
Red Eyes charge up an attack, and at the same time Brian noticed the monster's attack points floating in the air next to it.
"Hang on!" Brian shouted, "What happened to your dragon's attack? It's way too high!"
Joey just smirked. "I should have warned ya. Metalmorph adds one-half of the target monster's attack points to my dragon's attack points for the duration of the battle!"
Brian let out a shout as his monster was consumed by a huge fire ball which burned through to his life points, and was turned away from his body at the last minute by a barrier of darkness from his crystal.
Joey LP: 7000
Brian LP: 3600
"Your turn." Joey grinned but the smile quickly faded as he got a clear look at his foe.
The crystal in Brian's necklace was glowing with a deep purple light and the dark duelist had a look of pure rage on his face.
"Okay…Freaky." Joey thought.
"You are going to pay for that Wheeler!" Brian roared as he drew a new card and glared at the vacuum tube which quickly snatched away another card to the grave.
Joey watched as the top card of his deck was flung to the graveyard as well and then looked up to see Brian laughing again.
"Weesh! If this is his idea of being a little intense, I'd hate to see what it looks like if he all out loses it!" Joey said to himself.
"What's so funny?" Joey asked.
Brian smiled and placed a strange looking creature with thousands of hands placed all over its body on to the field.
"This." Brian explained, "My Manju of the Ten Thousand Hands (1600/1000)! He lets me move a ritual spell or monster from my deck to my hand."
Joey stared as Manju was covered in the same black tattoo as the others.
"Wait a minute," Joey shouted, "isn't Manju a creature of light?"
Brian shook his head as he pulled a card out of his deck.
"Not anymore. When I play a monster my seal immediately turns it into a creature of darkness no matter what element it is. But that doesn't really matter because I just needed its special ability to bring this ritual monster to my hand. Now that I have, I'll activate my face down bluff card: Contract with the Dark Master!"
As Brian's card flipped over a figure wrapped in cloth appeared and plunged its clawed hand through Manju and the Vampire Lady, both of which immediately faded away as the figure grew into a huge demon with green spiky hair, bronze skin with the same black markings as Brian, and a horrifying purple face!
Brian pointed at his monster. "Behold Joseph, the ultimate ruler of the dark realms. DARK MASTER---ZORC (2900/1500)! All I had to do was sacrifice monsters whose star level equaled eight or more. Now I can use his special power which I like to call: the roll of life or death!"
Zorc held out one hand and a large, black die appeared. The dark creature tossed the die to the ground with a huge blast of smoke. As the smoke cleared it could be seen that the result was a one.
Brian began to laugh once more. "A one! That's perfect now every monster you control will be destroyed! HA HA HA HA HA!"
A huge blast of dark energy surrounded Joey's side of the field and when it cleared the scapegoats and dragon were gone!
"NO!" Joey shouted as Zorc charged at him and swung a huge fist into his stomach for a direct attack.
Joey LP: 4100
Brian LP 3600
Joey gasped for breath as he drew his next card.
"I set one monster in defense mode. And that's all."
Brian smiled as he quickly went through the draw-discard-discard cycle again and looked at his prize monster. Zorc nodded and tossed the die again, this time the result was a five.
"A five means that I destroy one of your monsters." Brian explained as Joey's face down monster burst apart, revealing his Alligator Sword for a brief second, "Zorc attack him directly again with Symphony of Shadows!"
Joey braced himself as Zorc summoned up a huge sphere of darkness and fired it right into his rib cage.
Brian focused his gaze on his opponent. "Now you see that no one can defeat me!"
Joey LP: 1900
Brian LP: 3600
Joey winced with pain as he drew and looked at his cards his eye settling on one in particular. He groaned as he lay a monster face down and a card in his magic/trap zone, then waved to end his turn.
"What's the matter Joey?" Brian taunted, "You too badly hurt to talk? Don't worry this will all be over soon."
Joey looked up at Brian and managed to wheeze out, "Why? Why are you doing this?"
Brian's eyes narrowed. "Why am I doing this you ask? I'm doing it to remake this world! When this duel is over the loser, and by that I mean you, will lose something of great value."
Joey seemed shocked. "You mean my soul!"
Now Brian looked shocked! "No! My master is a bit more original and much less barbaric. What you'll lose is your dueling talent. Every strategy and combo you've ever thought up will be gone and you'll be worse than when you started playing duel monsters! Then we'll be one step closer to our goal! But enough talk, time for Zorc to roll those dice!"
The dark master tossed the die, this time with a two as the result.
"Two does the same as one!" Brian said with a smile, when suddenly the die burst apart and reappeared in Zorc's hand!
"Hey what the…" Brian exclaimed.
"Surprised?' Joey asked as he pointed to his newly revealed trap card, "This trap is called Dice Reroll and it forces us to redo the last dice roll that happened, so roll those dice again!"
Zorc tossed the die again, this time the die came up six.
A horrified look spread across Brian's face. "Shoot. When the result is a six, Zorc self destructs!"
A huge dark vortex surrounded Brian's half of the field now and Zorc vanished into it.
Brian quickly held up a new card from his hand.
"I activate Fulfillment of Contract! For 800 LP I can bring a ritual monster, like Zorc, back at full strength. Zorc attack the face down monster!" He declared as a little blood dripped from his nose and the dark master rematerialized.
The newly reborn monster lunged forward and tore Joey's face down card apart, revealing it to be a small warrior in brown armor, the Swordsman of Lanstar (500/1500).
Joey LP: 1900
Brian LP: 2800
Joey desperately drew his next card.
"Come on heart of the cards, don't fail me now!" He prayed.
Joey looked at his new card and a pained smile crept across his features.
"Time I ended this duel! I'll beat your darkness with a creature of light. Namely, Freed the Brave Wanderer (1700/1500)!" Joey shouted.
A heroic blond soldier in silver armor appeared in front of Joey.
"And now I'll activate his special ability by removing two creatures of light in my graveyard from play!" Joey continued.
"What creatures of light!" Brian shouted, "I never destroyed any!"
"Oh yeah?" Joey challenged, "What about the cards I discarded when I used Card Destruction? Or all the cards I never got to draw because of your seal's effect? Or even the two I dropped at the end of my second turn? I have plenty of light monsters in my graveyard and I'll remove Gearfried the Swordmaster and Blade Knight to activate Freed's special ability."
The soldier now pointed his sword at Zorc who began to tremble as Freed started to glow with a piercing light. Freed lunged forward, slicing though Zorc and sending the monster straight back to the graveyard!
Joey grinned at the shocked look on Brian's face.
"Freed lets me instantly destroy one monster that's stronger than he is when I remove two creatures of light from my graveyard. Now I'll equip Freed with Megamorph to double his attack points since I have the fewest LP."
Brian held up one arm as Freed (3400/1500) put a strange amulet around his neck and began to glow brighter. The light increased in intensity, sending the bats around the arena into frenzy!
"No! Not the light! ARGH!" Brian screamed.
As the light faded, Brian lowered his arm and was shocked to see that Freed had transformed into a being of pure light!
Joey pointed straight toward Brian.
"Now Freed, attack with Heroic Slice!" He ordered.
Brian just stared helplessly as the being of light swung at him. At the last minute, his crystal flared, and a wall of shadows stopped the sword in mid-swing. But through the cave, the sound of a life point counter ticking down could be heard.
"But…you're not supposed to be this good." Brian said simply as the shadows began to swirl behind him.
Joey LP: 1900
Brian LP: 0
Brian fell to his knees, shooting an angry look at Joey as a vortex of shadows began to surround him.
"Looks like I win." Joey said with a smirk, "And thanks to your own spell, now you'll lose your talent!"
"That's what you think Wheeler!" Brian shouted.
The teen raised one arm over his head, and the shadows swirled around it. Suddenly, they shot out in every direction, destroying the circle on the ground around them!
Brian got to his feet, an evil grin on his face as Joey gaped at him
"You could have destroyed that seal anytime you wanted couldn't you?" Joey exclaimed.
"Yep." Brian said, "The only reason I didn't was 'cause I expected to win!"
Brian's shadow jumped of the ground and moved toward Joey, when a sphere of yellow light appeared in front of Brian!
"Enough melodrama, you need to get going!" A voice yelled in Brian's head, "You have an appointment to keep, remember?"
Brian nodded, and his shadow fell back to the ground, turning into a pool around his feet.
"I'll have to get even with you later Joey." Brian said, "See ya!"
And with that, Brian vanished into the pool of darkness!
As Joey stood there, dumbstruck, a voice suddenly called out from across the cave.
"Hey, kid! Are you okay?"
Joey turned around and saw a zookeeper walking toward him.
"I'm fine." Joey said, "Let's get out of here."
Back out in the daylight, Joey was blinking trying to recover from the sudden shift in lighting, when his sister almost knocked him to the ground!
"Oh Joey! I was so worried you might be hurt!" Serenity sobbed.
Joey patted his sister on the back.
"Don't worry sis, I'm fine." He assured her (failing to notice her new accessory), "What do you say we go home. I think we've both had enough excitement for one day."
Serenity nodded, and the two started toward the exit.
"Oh, by the way, can my friend and I hang at your house until mom picks me up?" Serenity asked.
"Sure!" Joey agreed, "Who's the friend?"
Serenity smiled.
"The other girl who was in the bat exhibit with us. She helped me find a zoo keeper after Brian went in to find you. She's really nice, and I figured inviting her over for lunch was the least I could do to thank her for helping me." She explained.
Then Serenity frowned, "Hey, where didBrian get to?" She asked.
"Long story." Joey muttered, "Let's find your friend and get to my house, I need to call Yugi."
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In the meantime, downtown, a shadow rose out of the ground in the shade of the Kaiba Corporation building.
Brian stepped out of the shadow, his crystal's glow extinguished, and immediately became aware of the sound of approaching sirens.
"He didn't…" Brian thought.
Looking up, Brian could see smoke pouring out of one of the windows on the top floor!
"He did," Brian realized, "and man is he gonna get it if he failed!"
What could Brian be so worried about? And what is happening at Kaiba Corp? If you want to find out, you'll have to check out next chapter:
12:00
See you then!
Original Cards:
Elemental Seal of Darkness
Spell Card
Field
Image of a large black circle with an infinity symbol in the center and several strange letters around the outside.
This card cannot be removed from the field. As long as this card remains on the field, increase the attack of all DARK monsters by 200 points. The controller of this card may treat all monsters on his/her side of the field as DARK monsters. If a monster is sent from your hand or deck to the graveyard by the effects of a card controlled by your opponent, discard the top card of your opponent's deck
Hand Vacuum
Spell Card
Image of a large vacuum cleaner sucking up several duel monster cards.
This card's effect will only work if it goes directly from your hand to the graveyard by an opponent's card effect. During each of your opponent's standby phases they must randomly discard one card from their hand. This effect lasts as long as this card remains in your graveyard.
A/N: The above cards were created by us. If you want to use them, you'll have to e-mail us. Please read and review if you want to see more!
A/N: We reposted this chapter for the same reason we reposted "A Midsummer Nightmare." See the A/N at the end of that for further details.