Chapter 13: Swaying Pendulum

Kaiba stormed out of his rental car, not in the mood for any more games. He was here on business, and enough time had been wasted already. Entering the building, he made his way to the testing lab, where Declan and (much to his dismay) Pegasus were waiting for him.

"Kaiba boy, so glad you could join us! We were just about ready to begin the test."

"Must he be here too?"

Declan pushed his glasses up in contemplation, ignoring Kaiba's remark.

"I expected you here yesterday."

"I got held up. Damned ghouls prowling the streets."

Looking down from the observation room, he found the duel bot being prepped for the trial. Standing across from it was Sylvio, a rather large duel disk being strapped to his wrist for results.

"Isn't that the kid of that buffoon running for mayor? Why'd you pick him?"

"He was very persistent. But as long as he gets results, what does it matter?"

At last, everything was prepared, Sylvio drawing his hand with exhiliration.

"Get ready, you bucket of bolts! Sylvio Sawatari is about to blow you away!"

DUEL!

Sylvio: 4000

Duel Bot: 4000

"Analysis complete, the first turn is mine. Set one monster face down, set two cards face down. Turn end."

"You call that a first turn? I'll start things off with the spell card Reinforcements of the Army! Now I can add a level 4 or lower Warrior from my deck to my hand, like Igknight Crusader! Now, with the scale 2 Igknight Gallant and the Scale 7 Igknight Squire, I set the Pendulum Scale! Now I can Pendulum summon monsters between the levels of 3 and 6 all at the same time! Come forth, Igknights Cavalier (2400/1200), Gallant (2100/2200), and Templar (1700/1300)! Now Templar, attack his face down!"

The Brave knight brought his sword down, ready to cut down the monster...

Only to get his sword stuck in the hide of a mechanical Ankylosaurus (1500/2000), which swatted the knight back to Sylvio's field.

Sylvio: 3700

"Humph, no matter. Igknight Gallant, take out the relic!"

This time his knight was successful, splitting the beast in two with ease.

"Activate trap card, Dinomist eruption. Since you destroyed my Dinomist Ankylos, I can destroy your Cavalier.

Sylvio snarled as his strongest monster fell into a volcanic crater.

"I set one card face down and end my turn."

"Draw. Activate Pot of Greed, draw 2 cards. Activate face down, Dinomist Howling. Now I set Dinomist monsters from my deck into my pendulum zones."

"What? From the deck?"

"Scale 3 Dinomist Stegosaur and Scale 6 Dinomist Ankylos, set. Summon Dinomist Ceratops (2100/400), Dinomist Spinos (2500/1800), and Dinomist Brachion (2000/800). Activate Limiter Removal, doubling attack of all my machines (2000-4000) (2100-4200) (2500-5000)."

"Uh oh."

"Attack Cavalier with Spinos."

But Sylvio let a sly smile crossed his face.

"Oh, so sorry, but I activate the trap card Justi-Break! Since you declared an attack on my normal monster, all monsters that aren't normal monsters are destroyed!"

Lightning crashed down from above, frying to robots to charred circuits.

"Turn end."

"Its time I end this silly farce. Now my Knights, finish him off!"

The two knights tore into the robot, depleting its life points and power supply.

"Duel complete. Power shutting doooooowwwwn."

Duel Bot: 0000

Sylvio wins!

"Yes! I did it, I won! I..."

"Ahem."

Sylvio straightened up as Declan approached him.

"Very well, Sylvio. As promised, the deck is yours."

"Thank you, Mr. President."

With that, Sylvio took his leave, resisting the urge to skip down the hall out of glee.

"Just you wait, Sakaki! Next time we meet, revenge will be mine!"