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Fanfic Chapter 151: Strength of Darkness Pt 3: Gilford the Lightning
Episode Basis: The Darkness Returns Pt 3

Joey: Man, when I first went up against this nutcase, I knew it wouldn't be easy, but it seems like every time I seem to catch a break, I get in more danger. Just recently, he gave me this monster called Lava Golem. It has 3000 attack points. With such a strong monster, you'd think I used it to clobber Marik back to whatever freak-hole he came out of, but he willingly gave me this monster, which means it must have something that can really hurt me. And since this is a Shadow Game, it can be pretty lethal. But little does spiky know that I also have a special card waiting in the wings, something I've been saving specifically for the finals.

"What are you waiting for, Wheeler; make your attack with your Lava Golem!"

"Quit rushing me, Fuitcake, I'll attack when I'm good and ready." Of course, I don't think I am ready.

"It's not all bad," Tea said trying to be optimistic. "Now Joey has a monster with 3000 attack points, he can win this in one shot."

"It's not that easy, Tea," Yami-Yugi argued. "Don't forget, Marik gave Joey that monster. He must want Joey to attack."

"So he can activate his trap card, no doubt," Amara guessed.

Joey was thinking the same thing as he eyed Yami-Marik's face-down card. I can't let Marik win otherwise I'll never be able to save Mai. In fact, I'll be right up there in the Shadow Realm with her. Please, let me get a good card. He drew a card. Nuts, no good. What do I do now? I could attack Marik with his own monster, but he probably wants me to do that, otherwise why would he give it to me? But if I do nothing, I'll lose life points! I better take my chances and attack.

"I'm pleased to see you have come to your senses," Yami-Marik was saying. Apparently he thought Joey wasn't going to make an attack. Or maybe you're beginning to realize that there's no way you can win."

"Don't listen to him, Joey," Tea called.

Wheeler's in quite the predicament, Kaiba thought. If he attacks, Marik will surely retaliate but if he does nothing, he loses life points.

"It's all over!"

"Yes, it's all over for you, Little-Joey."

"Not yet it's not. Lava Golem, attack Marik's life points directly!"

His friends let out protests, "Joey, no!"

"What are you doing?"

"Have you flipped your lid?"

"What an idiot."

"I activate my trap card: Monster Relief! With this, I can return one monster on the field to my hand and replace it with any four-star or lower monster in my hand."

"But you have no monsters in your hand!" Tristan protested.

"Hold on, we've forgotten about Plasma Eel," Yami-Yugi pointed out. "It's still attached to Joey's Panther Warrior." Plasma Eel detached itself from Panther Warrior and returned to Yami-Marik's hand.

"Now I summon it to the field in defense mode." The same monster reappeared and was hit by Lava Golem's attack. "Plasma Eel can not be destroyed in battle and always remains on the field."

Helpoemer took another of Joey's cards as Lava Golem dripped magma around Joey's cage.

(J: 2400)
(M: 1900)

Ishizu could see the shadow bubble on top of the tower from her room on the blimp. "With every soul sent to the Shadow Realm, my brother's dark side gets stronger." She sighed, "Can nothing satiate that foul hunger?"

"It's my move," Yami-Marik announced. The card he drew was a magic card called Machine Duplication. "Ah, perfect, just the card I need to finish this fool off. I play Machine Duplication. Machine Duplication can only work with machine monsters with less than 500 attack points. It enables me to make copies of my Plasma Eel." One Plasma Eel became three and two of them attached to Joey's Rocket Warrior and Lava Golem. The two monsters were also drained as Joey cried out from the shock that resulted.

(RW: 1500-1000)
(LG: 3000-2500)

"Soon you'll be too weak to duel," Yami-Marik said in a demented voice.

"It'll… take… more than that… to beat me," Joey said struggling to stand."

Yami-Marik simply set a card face-down. "Then go if you can."

"I intend to."

Kaiba grunted. "Marik doesn't even need his Egyptian God Card to defeat this nobody," he complained.

"Things aren't looking too well for Joey, right, Yugi?" Tea asked.

Yami-Yugi didn't respond vocally but in his mind, he thought, Tea's right. Don't give up, Joey.

I have to do something to get rid of this flaming monster of his. But I have only one card in my hand and it won't help me now. Come on, heart of the cards, show me some love. He drew a card. It was a monster card called Gilford the Lightning (1). Awesome, I was hoping I would draw him. But to utilize him to his ultimate potential, I need to sacrifice three monsters and Marik's Plasma Eels have two of my monsters tied up… wait a second, the Plasma Eels! "All right, I got a plan. First I play Graceful Dice and I'll use it to increase the power of your Plasma Eels."

"My monsters?"

"Bingo. Since Machine Duplication only works with monsters with less than 500 life points, all I need to is roll any number and if my luck holds out…" Basically any number will do, but I hope it's a high number.

The die rolled a six.

(PE: 500-3000)

The Plasma Eel duplicates were destroyed. "Now I sacrifice Panther Warrior, Rocket Warrior, and your Lava Golem to call forth my ultimate fighting machine… Gilford the Lightning!" Thunder bolts danced across the sky causing everyone but Kaiba to crouch down. The thunder bolts converged on Joey's side of the field and formed a muscular human in silver armor carrying a large sword. The monster was literally emanating lightning. "How does it feel to be staring into the face of defeat, Marik?"

But Yami-Marik was laughing. "You fool, your magic card has proven to be your undoing! When you played Graceful Dice, you raised my own Plasma Eel's attack points to 3000. Your Gilford only has 2800 attack points. It'll be a massacre."

"More like a worm fry."

"Joey's right," Yami-Yugi confirmed. "Since he sacrificed three monsters to summon Gilford, Gilford's special ability destroys all of Marik's monsters."

Gilford held up his sword. Lightning danced around it and lashed out at Plasma Eel destroying it.

"It's not possible! My Plasma Eel can't be destroyed in battle!"

"Somebody wasn't paying attention," Joey said shaking his finger. "It wasn't an attack it was Gilford's special ability. But if you want me to attack, then attack I will! Gilford, attack Marik's life points directly!"

"This is it!" Harold announced. "If Joey's attack goes through, he'll win!"

"Activate trap card," Yami-Marik commanded. "Nightmare Mirror!" A large mirror appeared. "Look into the mirror, for the reflection is the target."

Joey saw himself in the mirror.

Gilford's sword went through the mirror and made it look like it was stabbing Joey.

"Now for the best part, you lose 1000 life points!"

(J: 1400)
(M: 1900)

"Of course, I have to sacrifice a card from my hand to play it." He deposited his Egyptian God Card in the graveyard. This should be the perfect card to discard… for now. "Did you really think you could take this duel away from me? This is a Shadow Game, which means I make all the rules and all you have to do is suffer!"

"Joey, be careful, Marik's up to something!" Harold called out.

Play that Egyptian God Card! Kaiba mentally commanded.

"I end my turn," Joey announced. Marik has no cards on the field or in his hand. If I can survive this turn, I have it made.

Yami-Marik drew a card and let out a joyous laugh.

"Just move already," Joey said getting irritated.

"I'll end this duel once and for all with Ra!"

Everyone was stunned. "Wait a second, I thought you had to sacrifice three monsters to summon an Egyptian God Card," Amara said.

"Normally you do," Yami-Yugi affirmed. Could Marik have another way to summon the Winged Dragon of Ra?

"Now's your chance to see the Winged Dragon again, Seto," Mokuba pointed out.

Everything is going according to plan. With Wheeler as my guinea pig, I can watch Ra in action and learn how to defeat it. I may have been able to read the ancient text but reading and witnessing are two completely separate things. I need to see it one more time so that when I come across it in the finals, I can crush it.

"I play Monster Reborn to bring back Ra!" The image of Monster Reborn glowed blood-red and grew over three times its size until it formed the Winged Dragon of Ra.

"Wow, it looks bigger in person," Amara said nervously and slipped back behind Tristan.

Joey stared at it bug-eyed.

Why would Marik do this? Yami-Yugi wondered. Ra takes on the attack points of the monsters used to summon it. But since he used Monster Reborn to bring it back, its attack points are 0.

(WDR: 0)

"First I activate Ra's ability of Instant Attack. This allows it to attack immediately. But that's just for starters." Ra suddenly burst into flames.

"What's going on?" Joey asked frightened.

"Ra has taken on the form of the Egyptian God Phoenix. In its ultimate form, it's unstoppable!"

"It's awesome!" Mokuba gasped.

"Yes," Kaiba agreed. "And soon it will belong to me."

I knew Egyptian God Cards could be powerful, but I didn't have any idea that they could do something like this, Harold thought staring with horror at the giant monster.

"Harold, your arm's shaking," Tea noted.

Harold looked down at his arm, the one that bore the Avatar Armlet. The arm was shaking but the rest of Harold's body wasn't. Of its own accord, the arm was raised and aimed at the edge of the Shadow Bubble. The circle of symbols started rotating and embedded them selves within the dome wall. A strange star-like symbol appeared briefly before a hole was made in the bubble.

A/N: If you guys knew what the symbol looked like, you would recognize it almost immediately.

In Mai's room, Serenity suddenly saw in her mind's eye an image of her brother followed by Ra in its phoenix mode followed by a laughing Yami-Marik. My brother, he needs me. She got up and ran (more like staggered) towards the exit. In the doorway, she bumped into Ishizu. "Ishizu…"

"Serenity, you seem troubled."

"It's my brother… I feel like he's in great danger."

"You should go to him," Ishizu advised.

"I know, but…"

"You and your brother share a bond I have not felt in years, that bond is telling you to go to your brother in his hour of need. You'll be the light in his darkest hour."

"Thanks, Ishizu." Serenity stepped aside and ran out.

"All relatives share a special bond," Serenity said. She looked back at Kevin, whom she knew was watching the whole thing. "That's what drives you to remain here at your cousin's side rather than going off on revenge."

"I never thought of it that way," he said.

Yami-Yugi wracked his brain over the situation. First Marik summons Ra without a sacrifice leaving it with 0 attack points. Then he transforms it. The pieces didn't come together.

"Pharaoh!" Yami-Yugi looked over at Yami-Marik. "Kaiba!" Kaiba did likewise. "Take heed, one of you will have to face the Winged Dragon of Ra in the next round as soon as Little Joey has been disposed of."

"This duel isn't over yet," Joey snapped. "I still have Gilford the Lightning at bat with over 2800 attack points while your overgrown flame-broiled chicken has 0!"

"But I'm about to activate another of Ra's special abilities. By paying 1000 life points, I can automatically destroy any monster on the field."

(J: 1400)
(M: (900)

"So what, it still can't take my life points."

"Life points are the least of your concerns," Yami-Marik commented. "Look down at your chest." Joey looked down and saw an energy string connecting him with Gilford. "I guess I should've explained the rules of the Shadow Duel a bit more clearly. The stronger a monster is, the more it affects its controller when it's destroyed. So when Ra destroys your Gilford, you will feel each and every stab of pain that your monster felt."

"Joey won't be able to survive that," Tristan said despairingly.

Serenity ran for the dueling tower. Hang on, Joey, I'm on my way, she thought.

"Prepare for your doom," Yami-Marik announced. "For the Phoenix rises tonight!"

To Be Continued

Duel Monster Database

(1)
Name: Gilford the Lightning
Level: 8
Type: Warrior/Effect
Attribute: Light
ATK: 2800
DEF: 1400