Shadowchasers: Conspiracy

by 0ccam's Razor

A fanfic of the Shadowchasers by Cyber Commander. Odd things are happening, and Shadowchasers all over the world are encountering criminals with strange and peculiar goals. Is a conspiracy afoot, or is some deeper plot in the works?

28. Hit the Road, Jack

I'd like to dedicate this chapter to an Icon for the ages and a man so, so many of us will miss for the rest of our lives. As we live on by saying the Vulcan motto, "Live long and prosper", let the cosmic winds of time diminish not one grain nor atom of his being or character through his passing, and hope that the true "Final Frontier", as it may, be discovered in the furthest reaches of heaven.

Rest in Peace, Mr. Leonard Nimoy - And, God Speed.

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Now we must go back a couple of hours. As stated, my expository will be regulated to sidelines; an academician is not sufficient now, as each chapter I write requires me to open darker and more forlorn parts of my memory.

While Drumer was in custody, and talking, he could say little about the whereabouts or activities of the other two prisoners he escaped with, Yolanda and Ramón. He claimed that after escaping to the Trash Heap, they had parted company and left as soon as possible, which was wise, seeing as few residents of the Lower Planes are friendly or hospitable.

But now, a call from a hardware store in Roswell seemed to give them a lead. The owner had seen the two fugitives… But the strangest part was, he had asked specifically for Douglas Bowmaker – using his full name – to come.

Why? Douglas had no clue. He didn't know anyone in Roswell. In fact, aside from other Shadowchasers, he didn't have many friends in the States at all. He typically only went there when there was a problem that might require his, uhm, unique skills, like there was in Green Bay.

Douglas wasn't stupid, of course. It was awfully suspicious.

And that's why when Jabels called, he agreed to go in an instant. Far be for him to disappoint whomever wanted him.

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Chapter Twenty-Seven

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Hit the Road, Jack

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It was now two PM, local time, in Roswell New Mexico, about two hours before the end of Sofia's duel, given the time difference.

"Ugh," said Douglas. He had just walked through the portal that Jabels had created, and the sudden change of temperature, pressure, and light when he made a "jump" that far always made him a little dizzy.

For some reason, I still prefer the bus, he thought. Now lessee...

Fortunately, he wouldn't have far to walk. Jabels had managed to put the end point of the portal right in front of his destination, the large Home Depot in downtown Roswell.

Now let's find out why someone is so eager to see old Douglas Bowmaker, he thought. He cracked his knuckles.

The automatic door opened as usual when he went in, and very little seemed out of the ordinary. It was a very large store, one of those big places that had everything under the sun for the building, maintenance, and repair of practically anything. This wasn't the old mom and pop hardware.

Guy like me could get used to a place like this, he thought.

"Uh, sir?" said a voice, in a rather insistent whisper. At the same time, he felt a tug on his sleeve, and looked down to see an old-looking gnome wearing semi-formal clothes and a store ID badge. He looked very tired, like he hadn't slept in a while, and his clothing was wrinkled and unwashed. Worst of all, he had a rather nasty-looking black eye.

"Over hear, over here," he insisted. "Not where the customers can hear…"

"Yer the manager, ah assume?" asked Douglas.

The gnome nodded. "Sorry to be so direct," he said, quietly, "but the people are starting to ask questions and we're running out of ways to humor them. And the regional manager is someone who has NO sense of humor whatsoever!

"Uh, I'm sorry. Gregory Toomes at your service… Please tell me you're Mr. Bowmaker."

"Gee, ah've never been in a store ah've never shopped at that was so happy ta see me," replied Douglas. "What's goin' on? You're the one who called?"

He nodded again, leading Douglas towards the back of the store.

"Yes, we saw Ms. Alva and her son," he said. He paused, and took a handkerchief from his pocket. "We were somewhat familiar with them… Someone reported them coming out of the employee lounge… Covered in garbage and smelling like they had swum though a cesspool…"

"Actually, that may not be far off," added Douglas. He noticed that Gregory had been about to wipe his brow, but had stopped. He was looking at the handkerchief, which also hadn't been washed in a while.

Douglas couldn't help but smirk a little. He flipped open the clasp of his sporran and took his own, much cleaner handkerchief out.

"Thanks," said the gnome, as the Shadowchaser handed it to him. "Anyway, they didn't say a thing, but they seemed to leave… something behind…"

He paused to wipe his brow.

"First it was the television," he said. "The employees on lunch break were watching it, and then something turned the volume to maximum. Then it switched to some…" His voice lowered even more. "…show that you would not find on basic cable, if you know what I mean. I'm very lucky no-one there at the time was underage. The crazy part is, we don't even subscribe to that channel!

"Then the vending machines started acting up. One employee tried to get a Twix and it dumped every Pay Day it had out, which was a sick joke, seeing as he can't eat peanuts, he has ana… ana…"

"Anaphylaxis?" asked Douglas.

"Right," replied Gregory. "Then it got nasty. The soda machine started shooting cans at people. That's how I got this." He pointed to the nasty shiner.

"I unplugged them, but they wouldn't turn off. Then… something in the television started taunting everyone with really bad jokes."

"Uh, as in…" said Douglas. "Tasteless bad?"

Gregory shook his head.

"Bad language?" asked Douglas.

"Keep going…" prompted Gregory.

"Bad language that would really offend certain people?" asked Douglas.

"The worst," groaned Gregory. "It got to the point that I tried bargaining with it and… It mentioned your name."

Douglas turned in that direction, and looked at the door funny.

"I locked up the room but…" continued Gregory. "Let's just say the regional manager is going to have my scalp if it's like this when he comes to inspect."

"Ah'll take a look…" said Douglas. "Think ah can handle some haunted machine…"

Truthfully, "haunted machines" were definitely not what he specialized in, and he figured he would call someone who did.

But so long as ah'm here, he thought, it won't hurt ta take a look…

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Now we must move elsewhere and elsewhen. In a one-story house with a retro-modern design, in a quiet suburb, the young man who Sofia had been trying so hard to find sat typing at his keyboard. New Jersey time would make it midnight, four hours after Sofia's duel, and while this house was far from New Jersey, it was still late at night.

"Seeing is believing."

Those three words were the first thing you saw upon logging on to , along with a picture of the site's mascot, Pokémon # 137, Porygon. He was never far from this website, having two shortcut icons, just in case.

It was funny, really. Nintendo of Japan practically declared the original Pokémon a failure as soon as it was released, and didn't have high expectations for it, until its creator, more out of desperation than anything else, tried it out on the new GameBoy, a device that not only made the game a success, but more than likely saved Nintendo too (which was under financial strain due to a game that had gone way over budget and its completion date, plus the growing competition from PlayStation). The game became a smash hit, and quickly became Game Freak's cash cow.

And it still was. Fantastic Fauna had started out much like any other Pokémon website, with forums, game news update, strategy guides, and the like, but then it blossomed into more, growing bigger and adding sections devoted to other anime and manga, other video games, and much more.

Only one thing really made it stand out. The private forum called the Kid Grid.

This forum was a club of sorts for members only, and very few regular forum members knew how you became a member. You needed a password to get in, and it likely changed every so often. One guy who likely had way too much free time decided to simply try everything, using a special program that could type at an incredibly fast speed in every word that was in every Nintendo game every made which was in the English language; but after the 72-hour time it took the program to try thousands of words… nothing.

Most visitors assumed that the club was where the moderators hung out and shared dirty pictures or something. The truth was more complex. The mods were sympathizers to the Kid Grid – not the real name of the group – but weren't members themselves. Of course, if you knew the significance of the name as it applied to the website's content, it might give you a vague idea.

Philip took a deep breath and leaned back to rest for a minute. He looked at a picture on his desk, one he had taken out of storage recently…

Then he was interrupted by the ping of an instant message.

"Hello, Philip," it read.

He glared daggers at the screen, as if the guy sending it to him was looking right at him (and he often wasn't sure he couldn't).

He muttered an obscenity under his breath. The guy had found him again. Sure, it happened to every member of the Kid Grid now and then, but this was the third time it had happened to him in as many months. This meant, at very least, he'd have to wipe the hard drive clean.

"What is it now?" he said, the microphone by the computer turning his verbal speech into words. He opened the drawer, looking for the flash drive where he kept his backed up files. Right now, his concern was finding out the last time he did that.

"Philip, I suggest you listen to me," came the reply. "If not for your sake, then for Sofia's."

"Sofia?" he yelled, standing up. "If you so much as come within one mile of her, I'll…"

"Quiet down," said the next IM. "I've done more than that but she hasn't been hurt… yet. You have an account on Deviant Art, I suppose?"

Philip started to mouth more obscenities in elven as he typed, and logged onto the famous fan art website. "Yeah, yeah, I do…" he answered. "Why?"

"Splendid," typed the IM. "Look up a deviant named Incognito3.14 and go to his Gallery, then click on his most recent deviation."

Philip quickly typed, then clicked, and then clicked again. "So what?" he said. "Princess Leia… In her outfit from A New Hope no less."

He wasn't serious, although everyone knew the website's reputation for pornography, which was often exaggerated. If someone said he wanted to show you a picture of Leia on the site, it was usually her in the slave girl outfit from Return of the Jedi. Or worse.

"Click on the link below," said the new IM. "It will only be up for the next hour, and should anyone but you click on it in that time, they'll get the site's usual error message. It leads to three private works of photography art."

Philip's hand shook on the mouse. But then he used his left hand to flick a small switch under the desk, and then clicked on the link.

Indeed, it led to a "deviation stack", a set of pictures grouped together. He clicked on one, and the first of three came up.

He nearly fell out of his chair… "Sofia!"

It was her all right. And she was clearly in danger. She was being held by someone in dark clothes with his face hidden by a mask. She was handcuffed, the cuffs latched to a chain around her waist, her ankles manacled, and worst of all, she was gagged, with a muzzle.

"You demented…" he started.

"Forgive the muzzle," typed the IM. "We don't usually use that, but she put up quite a fight, and we got tired of her yelling."

Indeed, the look on Sofia's face was one of absolute fury. Then Philip saw something else. She was wearing a necklace or pendant of some sort with a large ruby in the setting.

There was something else in the picture, behind her, a coffin of some sort made of red crystal.

So that's it… he thought. He recognized this setup. Of course, that didn't make him any less angry.

There was another important things in the picture that drew his attention, likely purposely, as it stood out on the other side of the wall. It was a copy of the cover of The Daily News stuck there with duct tape, the picture clearly what was on today's issue. (A subtle assurance to him that Sofia was probably still alive right now, especially given the posting time of the photo.)

He clicked on the second picture, and it was even worse. The same masked figure – you could only see his hands and forearms, but that was enough – was shoving poor Sofia into that casket, which was obviously a tight fit.

Philip could feel his blood start to boil as he clicked on the third, revealing a photo of the lid being closed, showing just enough of the inside to see part of her face, enough for him to be sure it was her.

"Listen to me, you sick…" he started.

"I suggest you refrain from the usual insults, Philip," the next IM read. "I'm sure you're aware of the possible consequences."

Philip sat down and held his chest. He closed his eyes for thirty seconds, and then opened them, trying his best to stay calm.

"Let her go," he said. "Please. She knows nothing, and she's worth nothing to you."

"That may be so, but there is still potential to make a profit," wrote out the IM. "The Shadowchasers have enemies... Some of whom have grudges against her personally. High-ranking members of organized crime and terrorist cells, many would pay large sums to have her at their mercy."

Philip's fist tightened.

"And if none can be found, I can call Torch and see what they can arrange."

"Bastard…" replied Philip.

"I'm called that so often," came the reply. "I really don't care anymore."

"Listen, if the Memory Crystal is what you want, it isn't mine to give now," replied Philip.

"I know," said the IM. "And the rest of your group would likely scold you for dragging Sofia into this and tell you to leave her to her fate. Ironically, I do believe you had been trying to prevent this for five years."

Philip clutched his fist harder, as it quivered.

"But I'm not heartless," continued the IM. "You have something else I want, and your associates don't even have to know."

"I kind of doubt it," said Philip, under his breath.

"I believe about a month or two ago, a team consisting of you and two other members encountered a group of keepers in the New Mexico desert."

Philip's head lurched up suddenly.

"Calm down, they were no-one I know, but I also believe they had something that you took. A pure-white cog inscribed with black sigils."

Philip pushed himself and his chair away from the desk, rolling backwards to another desk, this one with drawers. He opened the top one, and picked up the strange object that was just described.

"This thing?" he said. He stood up and walked back to the computer. "Never could figure out what it was…"

"It's called the Concordant Gear," wrote out the IM. "One of five gears that have to be installed into a special machine, a task that you could not do, even if you had them all. So it's worthless to you.

"So, you bring the Gear, I'll return Sofia."

Philip looked hard at the monitor. "What do I have to do?" he asked.

"Good choice," said the next IM. "Now you'd best write this down. This Thursday at noon, as in two days from now, you will come to the Mall of America."

"Mall of America?" asked Philip. "In Bloomington, Minnesota?"

"Do you know of any other malls by that name?" wrote out the next IM.

"Well, no," replied Philip. "Just… It's not exactly the place for this kind of thing."

"Just do what you're told. Come to the store where you'd expect to find this sort of thing."

"Huh?" said Philip. "This sort of thing?"

"I'm sure a smart fellow like you can figure that out. And I don't want to see any other members of your group.

"Make me angry this time, Philip, and… Well, just don't. We'll see you there then. Noon. Local time."

Then the sender flicked offline. Philip closed his eyes and kept them closed for a full minute. Then he looked at the iPad next to the computer.

"File Done," said a message on it.

He had managed to download the Deviation stack. Still, while he wanted to believe it was because the guy didn't expect he would try it, the far more likely reason he had managed to do so was because the guy simply didn't care.

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Back to Roswell, where Gregory inched towards the door to the employee lounge.

"Just be careful," he said. His hand quivered as he unlocked the door. "This… thing is the talkative sort, so long as you don't talk back to it, if you know what I mean."

"Eh, ah've handled lots a' guys like that," replied Douglas. "Move it…"

Gregory didn't object, and moved aside, letting the Shadowchaser open the door. Almost instantly upon entering, Douglas had to duck as a soda can flew right towards his forehead, crashing into the hallway wall behind him.

"Not very subtle, are ye?" he asked.

He looked around. The rather large – as befit a store this large – employee lounge was a mess. Soda cans, candy bars, and other stuff that had spilled from the vending machines were all over the floor along with a great deal of water from an upset bubbler, along with a broken radio and a lot of paper. The term "it looked like a hurricane hit it" may have been a cliché, but it seemed appropriate.

"Not very neat either…"

The television in question was just showing static right now. But then it blinked, and turned to a black screen.

"There is nothing wrong with your television set," said a very distinctive voice. "Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling transmission. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical."

"Ah've seen that one before…" said Dunstan, with a bored expression.

Then the screen quickly changed, and Roger Rabbit appeared, making a Toon-exaggerated raspberry towards the camera.

"We can play these games all day," said Douglas. "Ah got nowhere ta go…"

"You always were a regular cut-up…" chuckled a sinister voice.

The screen changed again, to a scene showing a screaming teenage girl dodging a chainsaw being used by a guy in a mask with a blood-soaked apron.

"That supposed ta scare me?" asked Douglas. "Ah've seen that one too. Ah'll tell ya right now, whoever ya are, ah don't like bad jokes either."

The movie disappeared. "Uhm, you do know who this is, right?" asked the sinister voice again.

Douglas looked at the set and crossed his arms. "Not sure," he said, with an obvious sarcastic tone, "ah know lots of haunted televisions, you could be any one a' them."

Then he heard a "CA-CHUNK", and quickly spun around, catching the can of soda that the vending machine fired at him.

He looked at the can, then looked at the television. He smirked, then opened the can, then drank it in three gulps. Then he crushed it on his forehead.

"Thanks," he said. He threw it aside, and then belched. "Think ya can make it 7Up next time?"

"I despise you…" said the voice.

"What did ah ever do ta you, fellah?" asked Douglas. "If you're someone ah've busted, that really doesn't narrow it down much. Ah've been in this business a very long time."

Then the door slammed shut, and there was a clicking noise.

"Yeah, I know," said the voice. "Good guys like you think that when someone swears revenge, it means nothing. After all, you've just arrested him for multiple counts of first degree murder; by the time he gets out of prison, if he does, he won't even remember his own name, let alone the guy who sent him there.

"Thing is, Douglas, you humans take some things for granted. Some of us consider a mortal's lifetime way too short a time to forget being humiliated. Especially when we've been humiliated by someone with a lifespan that short, if you get the idea."

All this time, Douglas was rubbing his chin and thinking. Must be someone from "out of town", he thought.

Of course, he doubted a high-ranking member of the infernal hierarchy would act so immature. They tended to have more pride. This was likely just some wanna-be.

Still doesn't narrow it down much, and I'm startin' ta' lose patience…

"Come out of there and fight like a man, you…" he stated, as he marched up towards the screen.

Then a powerful blast of electricity shot from an outlet, hitting him in the chest. He was knocked three steps backwards, as the television turned to static again.

He looked up, as a scene from an old and rather well-known cop movie appeared, with the star pointing a gun at the camera. "Go ahead, make my day," he said, in his iconic, gravelly voice.

"Very funny…" said Douglas. "So what now?"

"Tell you what I'm gonna do," said the creature's voice. "Make you a deal…"

The screen flashed again, and the theme for Let's Make a Deal started to play. Douglas sighed.

This is stopped being amusing about five minutes ago… he thought.

"We're going to handle this your way," said the machine.

"You mean Duel Monsters?" asked Douglas.

"Uh, no mac, I mean Tiddlywinks," it replied. "Of course I mean Duel Monsters!

"But we're going to add one little house rule concerning the outcome. First off, you win, as if, fine. You lose, however, what I do next depends on whether you can figure out who I am before it's over. You can, I'll just do what I said I'd do way back when."

"And suppose I tell you to stick this little house rule of yours in a body part that can only be exposed on a premium channel show?" asked Douglas.

Then a furious shroud of fire surrounded the set, accompanied by two evil eyes and a jagged mouth.

"Then I'll take control of every electronic device in this building,"it shouted, "and do my best to reduce it to a flaming pile of metal, concrete, and human remains. Capisce?"

"Okay, you don't have to yell!" replied Douglas. He held up his hand as the creature calmed down.

"Oh, and by the way," continued the creature, in a calmer voice, "that's also what happens if you lose without figuring it out. So you'd best start using your brain, assuming you even know where it is."

As Douglas activated his Disk, the screen changed again, to a shot of a video game – he assumed something in the Street Fighter series. Chun-Li flipped towards the camera with a somersault and made a fighting stance.

"Are you ready for this?" she purred.

She did a backflip, and the screen changed again, the backdrop changing to a Duel Terminal screen. She gestured, like a game show model would, and hand of five cards appeared.

This guy seriously watches too much television, thought Douglas. He fit the D-Gazer over his left eye, and the VR-interface started to cover the room.

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Again, we must travel elsewhere and elsewhen. At the seedy, dimly lit bar, it was also close to midnight, but seeing as this was in Florence, it was actually three hours before Sofia's duel had even started.

"Place seems empty tonight, Dominique…"

The comment came from a shifty-looking man in a flannel shirt and jeans with a tweed flat cap, as he looked around the bar. Aside from the bartender – that would be Dominique – the only other customers were Donnie and Frankie, who were at a table, watching the door.

"There were a few," replied Dominique. He poured from a bottle into a shot glass. "When they saw you three coming, they went out the back door." He pushed the glass towards him. Of course, he didn't notice that Carlo had pointed ears about twice the size of a typical elf's.

"Word out is that you guys are poison," he continued. "That being around you ain't safe these days."

Carlo drank the shot in one slug. "I'm not gonna sugarcoat it." he said, "That isn't far from the truth. Still 'word is' you might know something that the big guy could use."

He pushed the shot glass forward and Dominique mumbled something under his breath as he refilled it. "You people are going to drive me to drink one of these days," he said. "Very well… Not that I truly know anything, mind you, but I have heard rumors that might be useful, if they're important enough."

"A hundred thousand euros," replied Carlo. "And the boss is very discreet."

Dominique looked aside briefly, then back to Carlo.

"In that case, the rumor in question might have something to do with a hired gun who dresses like a girl in a certain fairy tale…"

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"So how can ah be sure whatever deck yah have in there isn't rigged somehow?" asked Douglas.

"Can we at least play a few rounds before you accuse me of cheating?" asked the voice.

Chun Li vanished, and a stern-faced bald man wearing a boxing referee's uniform appeared in her place. "Let's get it on!" he ordered.

(Douglas: 8,000) - - - - - - - - - - (?: 8,000)

"I draw!" said the creature, as a card spiraled from the background of the odd scene on the set and positioned itself with the other five cards. As insane as this was, Douglas was curious just how this would work.

"I activate the Continuous Spell Card, Triangle Force!" shouted the being.

The TV hummed with an ominous light, and a phantasmal Alpha the Magnet Warrior sort of "phased" though the screen. Upon his feet touching down, he turned into a flat shape, that of a Continuous Spell.

"And by playing it, I get to take two more copies of Triangle Force, and activate them too."

Beta and Gama the Magnet Warriors phased through the set, landing alongside their "brother", and then they turned into duplicate cards.

"Hmm!" grunted Douglas.

"Next, I'll summon my Seismic Crasher," said the creature, as the set started to glow again.

A new phantasmal being leapt out of the set, but it soon solidified as it landed, turning into a warrior… Well, sort of. It was a young man with a midriff-bearing blue breastplate and greaves combination, gauntlets made of the same material, and a blindfold over his eyes. He held two very large swords, the blades covered with odd, green spirals. (1,400 ATK)

"Well, that's weird," said Douglas.

"Seems I finally got you to take notice," said the creature.

"Yah, but I didn't mean 'weird' as in 'interesting'," replied Douglas. "I mean 'weird' as in 'what was the guy who thought up that card smoking'?"

"I'll show you," said the creature.

Then Seismic Crasher swiped his two blades down with a malevolent smile; "Ouch!" shouted Douglas.

(D: 7,500) - - - - - - - - - - (?: 8,000)

"How'd ya do that? It's the first turn of the duel!"

"That wasn't an attack," replied his opponent, with a snicker. "By getting rid of a Continuous Spell card, like one copy of my Triangle Force, Seismic Crasher can dish out 500 points of damage."

Chun Li appeared on the screen again, behind the remaining four cards. She gave two swift kicks, and two of them flew out of the screen, one of them landing face-down behind Seismic Crasher, and the other appearing face-up.

She crossed her arms and grinned at Douglas, but he was more interested in the face-up card. He had never seen this particular Continuous Spell…

"It's called Goblin Circus, Doug," said his opponent. "You mind if I call you Doug?"

"Yes," snapped the Shadowchaser.

"Whatever," it replied. Chun Li leapt upward and vanished, then a deck of cards appeared above the rest of the hand.

"Using this Spell, I can, once per turn, look at the card on the bottom of my deck. Then I can either put it on top of my deck, or banish it. I think I'll do just that…"

The card tilted upward and forward, showing the one on the bottom, which was the Spell Card, Reasoning.

Oh, crap… thought Douglas.

"Think I'll put that one on top," said the creature, with an odd chuckle. "And it's your move."

"Eh…" said Douglas. He made his first draw, and then gave his Disk a jarring, causing the Field Zone Slot to slide open.

"Since ya did such a job on this room, I'm gonna hafta sweep the mess under the rug fer now," he said. "I use the Field Spell, Mausoleum of the Emperor!"

A smoky have started to melt the walls, transforming the employee lounge into a dark, cavernous crypt. An altar with fiery braziers was behind Douglas, and a deep, dark crevice separated him from his opponent, spanned by a bridge.

"In here, each player can use the Terracotta Army lurking below as sacrifices to summon high-Level monsters, for the price of 1,000 Life Points apiece. So ah'll use two of 'em…"

Two stone statues of the soldiers of ancient China floated up from the pit below, and then dissolved into sparkling sand.

"To summon the Felgrand Dragon!"

In a powerful flash of gold, the mighty and beautiful Dragon rose, shining and looking angrily at the haunted set. (2,800 ATK)

"Same old Douglas," chuckled the creature. "Always using monsters the same size as your ego. One would think you were trying to…"

He was cut off as a beam of burning light from the Dragons jowls blew Seismic Crasher to little bits.

(D: 5,500) - - - - - - - - - - (?: 6,600)

"HEY," he shouted. "I wasn't finished!"

"Ah know," replied Douglas. "Ah just didn't care."

He slipped a card into his Spell Zone, and it slowly appeared behind the Dragon, in set position. He stared to say something, but was interrupted.

"Before you end your turn," said the thing in the TV, "now might be a good time for your memory to jog. Otherwise, I'm going to have to job it for you."

For the first time, Douglas looked a little worried.

Guy's got a point, thought Douglas. He's a'gonna draw Reasoning the next turn, an' that's a powerful card if ya don't know what sort of monsters yer opponent is using. But if ya do…

Dammit, who is this guy?

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Philip leafed through his deck for the third time.

No good. All of his best monsters were Wind. He didn't have time to build a workable deck from scratch. Doing this alone was out of the question.

He knew a few fellow members of the Determined (the official name for his group) who had the right kind of deck, but the guy had specified "no members of his group".

…But…

He looked at the picture again, his copy of that photo of him and Sofia at the beach.

"He never said no members of your group," he said to himself. "But then…"

That was the zinger. The Determined had rules. Using their accumulated knowledge for personal gain or sharing it with non-members was grounds for expulsion at the very least. And it wasn't just to protect their secrets, it was to protect innocents from looking for things in dangerous areas, and from the horrid creatures they were fighting who wanted the same secrets.

In fact, he had bent the rules already by even spending time with Sofia. He had just wanted to…

…wanted to protect her… he thought.

He slammed his fist on the desk. "DAMMIT!" he shouted. Bad enough that the bastard kidnapped Sofia… He'd had a valid point when he cajoled him about it.

Even telling the others was out of the question. He got her into this mess, he had to get her out. He could just hand over the Gear, but he doubted it would turn out best for Sofia even then. He only said he'd "let her go". That let a lot of room open for loopholes.

But no way was Sofia ending up in Torch. His enemy had given him a sadistic choice, and he knew the one he had to make… Even if it meant throwing five years of work away.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Before I draw," said the thing in the TV, "I'm going to use this Trap Card." The set card lifted up. "Miracle Draw. Before my Draw Phase, I have to guess what the card is that I draw. If I'm right, you take 1,000 points of damage. I'm wrong, then I take damage."

Oh, brother, thought Douglas.

"I'm getting a little tired of Chun-Li, so let's bring in someone new," continued the creature.

There was a girlish giggle, and Sailor Moon leapt onto the screen, winking at Douglas and making a V-sign with her index and middle fingers.

"Now I'll draw, and I believe it will be… Reasoning!" continued the duelist.

Again, the card spun from the backdrop, revealing the familiar Spell Card.

"Lucky you…" mumbled Douglas. Then he grunted as a blast from the Trap hit him in the stomach.

(D: 4,500) - - - - - - - - - - (?: 6,600)

"Don't be such a spoilsport Doug," said his opponent, "we're here to have fun, after all. I think I'll use this card right now… I assume you know how it works…"

"Ah know how ta play Duel Monsters!" shouted Douglas. "Ah have to give a number, then ya pick up cards till ya get a monster… If it isn't the Level I choose, you summon it.

"So ah guess ah'll just pick 4."

"Usagi, help of out if you will," said the duelist.

Douglas groaned again as Sailor Moon giggled again, then made a pirouette as cards started to appear: first Pot of Duality, then Magical Stone Excavation, then Card from a Different Dimension, and finally a monster, which unfortunately, was Level 6.

"Looks like I win again," he said with another chuckle. "So I'll get rid of these…" The Spells vanished. "And summon Gravi-Crush Dragon!"

Usagi stood back with a rather shocked look as the card disappeared and another phantom leapt out of the screen. It quickly turned into a hulking, muscular brute with a pug-faced Dragon's head, reptilian skin, and a long, scaly tail. He wore iron, spike-studded wristbands and anklets, and an armored collar. (2,400 ATK)

"Now I'll get rid of another copy of Triangle Force so he can strut his stuff," said the creature, "and destroy one of your monsters. Guess which one…"

Gravi-Crush Dragon's claws turned into long, serrated blades, and he cut the Continuous Spell in half with one swipe. Then he turned towards Felgrand Dragon…

"He's gonna have ta pick a fight with someone else," said Douglas. "I activate Mystik Wok!"

His Spell Card flipped up and around, and Felgrand Dragon turned to golden light, which Douglas absorbed into his fist. "Ah, that's the stuff…" he said.

"Fine with me!" shouted the thing in the TV, a little annoyed now. "Attack directly!"

Gravi-Crush Dragon retracted the claws, then made a rush at Douglas, fist first. However, Douglas grabbed another card from his hand.

"Since ya did that, I can summon Swordsman of Revealing Light in Defense Mode!" he yelled.

Two shimmering swords of pure light fell from above, embedding themselves in the ground. As Gravi-Crush Dragon aimed for Douglas' jaw, a Warrior in metallic blue armor appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the two blades, parrying with them. (2,400 DEF) The Dragon's hand smacked into him… Then he yelped in pain, and staggered away, holding its fist.

There was a sudden burst of girlish laughter. Douglas looked at the screen, and saw that Usagi was pointing at the Dragon and laughing her head off.

Then a Vaudeville hood came from off-screen, grabbed her by the waist, and yanked her away.

"Note to self," growled the duelist, "never work with her again."

"Actually, fellah, ah'm startin' to like this," chuckled Douglas. "Why dontcha come out and face me like a man? What have ya got ta hide? Or are ya compensating for something?"

"Oh, you should talk," replied the TV. "You with that costume of yours."

"Costume?" shouted Douglas.

"You think wearing that kilt and talking with that accent makes you the Highlander?" asked the creature. "You try too hard and end up acting like the type who gets plastered on stout in a pub in Glasgow and starts a barroom brawl.

"That supposed to be an insult?" asked Douglas, with a small laugh.

The set didn't speak for a minute or two.

"I'll set a face-down card, and then use the effect of Goblin Circus again," said the voice, now clearly annoyed.

The deck appeared again, and then revealed the bottom card, another Continuous Spell.

Eh, Recycle… thought Douglas. He'd heard of that card, although it was rather old. What's that do again?

"I'll put that one on top…" said the creature. "Move…"

(D: 7,800) - - - - - - - - - - (?: 6,600)

Douglas looked at the Miracle Draw card again, then drew. His four cards now were Trade-In, Advance Force, Double Summon, and Yamata Dragon.

Nothin' here that can get rid of that Trap, he thought. He looked at the Trade-In card. Eh, I can't use this guy with Trade-In, it's only Level 7… Gotta be a way ta get more outta these four cards…

Wait… Got it!

"I set two cards," he said. He fit to of the three Spells into his Disk, and they appeared reversed. "Then I'll play this one, Advance Force."

He fit the third Spell right side-up, and a Continuous Spell appeared between the set ones.

"With this card in play, ah can summon a Level 7 or higher monster with one sacrifice, so long as the sacrifice itself is at least Level 6. So ah sacrifice him…"

Swordsman of Revealing Light flashed his blades, crossed them, and disappeared into sparkling, starry light. Then a fire tower rose from where he stood…

Yamata Dragon appeared, all eight of its heads roaring. (2,600 ATK)

"Attack his monster with Divine Wrathstrike!"

Lighting crashed, and then seven streams of fire blasted, hitting Gravi-Crush Dragon and leaving nothing but burning embers on the floor. The TV sparked a little, and the creature inside it groaned.

(D: 7,800) - - - - - - - - - - (?: 6,400)

"Ugh, I use my Trap, Damage Condenser!" he shouted. The set card lifted, and one of the cards on the screen disappeared. "True, I only took 200 points of damage, but even taking one point of damage would have been enough to use it to summon Secret Sect Druid Wid."

There was a rush of air, and two long boards with black scepter-shaped designs and red markings inside orange frames broke out of the ground. They parted, and a mysterious-looking man appeared from behind them, holding them up. He wore a dark robe and hood, with a plain iron mask over his face. (0 ATK)

"Well then…" continued Douglas, "I also get to draw five new cards…"

He lifted the top five off his deck, spread them out, and looked at them. Aha, it's a beginning! he thought.

The Trade-In card he had set earlier lifted. "Ah'm usin' this now… Ah'll discard one Level 8 monster ta draw twice more…"

He added the card to the others inside his Disk, then made two draws. Even better, he added.

Then the Double Summon card lifted up. "Now ah'll use this, so ah can make a second Normal summon… An' since ah can use Advance Force as much as ah want, ah'll sacrifice Yamata Dragon…"

The Spirit Monster disappeared, fading away like a mirage. Then, the dark Mausoleum was flooded with nearly blinding light.

The Creator had appeared. (2,300 ATK)

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Again, we must travel to Florence, but fast forward the time about eight hours.

Fanciullo was still in a rotten mood, but at least he was well-rested now. Still, Carlo was more than a little nervous trying to talk to him. Especially since Tormento was right next to him as he did.

"Well, boss, uhm…" he stammered. "Dominique told me…"

"Will you just spit it out, Carlo?" demanded Fanciullo. "We aren't getting any younger here…"

"Dominique told me straight that B.B. Hood was living at this address, and he even drew me a little map," said Carlo, quickly.

He tried to hand it to Fanciullo, but Draco caught his hand, then took it. Carlo backed off as Tormento gave it to Fanciullo for him.

The crime boss looked at it for a minute, and then looked up. "She lives in the old chemical plant?"

"I know, boss," continued Carlo, "it seems… It seems so…"

"Obvious?" asked Fanciullo. He looked the paper over. "That it does… Yes… Thank you, Carlo, you're dismissed…"

Carlo held his chest and let out a very loud breath as he walked out of the room. Nitro and Uomo came in from the other door.

"Whatcha think boss?" asked Tormento. "Think it's a trap?"

Fanciullo gave him a dirty look.

"Yeah, I guess it is kinda… Obvious…" muttered Tormento, now just as nervous as Carlo was.

"Omega Industries owns that place, right?" asked Uomo.

"Yeah, but I think the big question is, who owns Omega?" added Nitro.

"No one person owns Omega," answered Fanciullo. "The company is owned by a group of stockholders, led by whoever holds a controlling share. Right now I think the guy who owns it is legit, but a few decades ago, that controlling share belonged to…"

He stopped, then said it: "Paradias."

"Uh, so?" asked Tormento.

Uomo slapped him on the head. "Dartz's company, you big, fat idiot!" he snapped. "You know, the guy with the Orichalcos? The ultimate evil? Paradias supposedly had shares in every company."

"Yeah, but if they had a controlling share…" said Nitro.

There was silence for a few minutes. Uomo was the first to break it.

"Uh, well, he's dead, right? He doesn't own the place now, right?"

"True, but here's what we know…" said Fanciullo. "B.B. Hood practically gave away information about where she was, and it's in a dangerous factory with a previous owner that would makes folks consider it the most likely place around here to be a 'chill grill' – or a reasonable facsimile.

"Either she thinks we're very stupid, or her plan isn't a straight-out ambush…"

"You don't think it's a trap?" asked Tormento.

Fanciullo gave him the same dirty look again, then he slapped him across the face.

"Of course I think it is, stupid!" he shouted. "Sit over there."

Tormento hesitated, but another glare from his boss made him do what he was told, sitting down on the couch in front of the coffee table while Fanciullo pulled a chair up opposite.

"Take your dueling deck out," ordered Fanciullo. "Take Mystical Space Typhoon and two Level 4 monsters, doesn't matter which."

"Uh, okay…" said Tormento. He leafed through the deck. "How about these?"

"Fine, fine, put that one on the table," ordered the boss. Tormento did so, putting a monster called Tasuke Knight there.

"Okay, let's say that's your field, those other two cards are your hand, and I'm your opponent," continued Fanciullo, "and it's my move…"

He drew a card from his own deck by the side of the table, then played two of them, putting Toy Knight's card in front of a set card.

"Turn end," he said. "I just put a wimpy little Toy Knight with only 200 Attack Points in Attack Mode in front of your Tasuke Knight with 1,700 Attack Points, even though I could have Special Summoned it in Defense Mode.

"Now what's your take on this?"

"Uh, pretty obvious set-up…" said Tormento.

"Your move…" said Fanciullo.

Tormento carefully lifted the next card, then placed Mystical Space Typhoon on the table.

"Oh, dear," said Fanciullo, rolling his eyes. "Oh, wait…"

He picked up the card. "Axe of Despair, Tormento, and as many duelists forget, when it's destroyed, the owner can sacrifice a monster…" He picked up Toy Knight's card and placed it where the Graveyard Zone would be. "…to place it on the top of his deck. Like so…"

"Uhm…" said Tormento. He continued, placing a second monster – Gogogo Golem – on the table.

"I uh, I attack directly with… Tasuke Knight…"

"Bad move…" said Fanciullo. He took a card from his hand and placed it on the table.

"Ooh, you're in trouble now…" said Uomo.

"Gorz, the Emissary of Darkness," said the boss, nodding. "Not only is his score nothing to laugh at, but I also get a Token with an Attack Score equal to the damage I just took. And don't forget, I'll draw Axe of Despair next round…

"So what would you do now?"

"Uh… I would fold…" said Tormento.

"Smart man," said Fanciullo. He gathered his cards and stood up. "I think I've made my point…"

"So the obvious trap is a diversion for a hidden, deadlier trap," said Uomo.

"Which is why we need a plan," said Fanciullo. "We can't be caught by surprise this time… The big problem is…" He tossed the map on the table.

"Unless she really does think we're stupid, Hood likely knows were onto her… But then, we know she knows we're onto her, but she knows we know she knows… Well, you get the idea. Which means it's hard to say what she wants us to believe."

"I've got an idea…" said Nitro.

All this time, he had been tapping his iPad with a stylus, bringing up data.

"As said in Sun Tzu's The Art of War, The contour of the land is an aid to the army; sizing up opponents to determine victory, assessing dangers and distance. 'Those who do battle without knowing these will lose'."

"Get to the point, Nitro!" snapped Fanciullo.

"Simple," said the bespectacled man. "We use an asymmetrical warfare concept called 'effective use of terrain'… Adjusted for a modern indoor 'terrain', and I think we can gain the upper hand here… Where's Drago? We're gonna need him here…"

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

"Okay, who or whatever you are," said Douglas, "ah'm ditching one'a my cards, so that the Creator can do his thing."

He slapped the card into the Graveyard slot, and the divine being raised its glowing fist, then punched the floor, causing the whole Mausoleum to shake. Felgrand Dragon burst out of the ground, roaring even louder.

"Next I'll use Swordsman of Revealing Light for its effect, meaning it gains 1,600 Attack Points!"

(4,400 ATK)

The screen changed again, showing a commercial with the Red M&M guy rolling his eyes and clapping sarcastically.

"That's what I always liked about you, Douglas," said the creature, in a tone that matched the attitude. "Getting so much out of such a strategy, in a game where resources are important."

Douglas raised an eyebrow. "As in, where greed pays…" he said, slowly.

"Of course," said his opponent. "I mean, when the Pot of Greed was still legal, everyone used it! They got rid of it, but it inspired a whole slew of cards!

"What did Gordon Gekko say in that movie? Greed is…"

"No, he didn't quite say 'Greed is good'," interrupted Douglas. "He actually said, 'Greed, for lack of a better word, is good'."

There was no response from the screen. Douglas smirked, and crossed his arms.

"Ah hadn't seen the movie the first time ya quoted it, Toadpipe," he said, "but ya piqued my interest, so ah looked into it later.

"Ah wasn't expecting you to come after me… Scabtree, on the other hand…"

"Oh, I lucked out compared to what happened to him!" shouted the creature. "And the only reason they went easy on me is because they expect me to pay back the debt I owe them. As it is, I was demoted two ranks!"

"The two of you shouldn't have tried tricking an entire high school class in-ta signing that contract," said Douglas. "Didn't ya realize someone would notice? Scabtree himself said that they were thinking of scrapping the whole 'soul futures' program… Ah'm starting to think it's because a devil has ta be stupid, desperate, or both to try it. Easy to see why it's not popular anymore."

Truthfully, "soul futures" was an idea used by some fiends that had never been popular in the Lower Planes; it had been thought up by a pit fiend – probably one who worked for Mammon, the embodiment of greed – who many mortals believed had invented such modern con artist hooks as Ponzi schemes, pyramid schemes, and possibly 419 scams.

But soul futures, which was sort of like spiritual loan sharking, wasn't his best idea. A low-ranking fiend would promise a number of yet-to-be-obtained souls to a powerful devil in exchange for resources, services, or information. If the recipient couldn't deliver the promised souls by the deadline, well, the sharks had squads of enforcers made up of creatures that even some devils were scared of. Usually, only fiends who were in hot water with their masters after getting behind in their quotas or ones who thought they could gain incredible power and prestige quickly tried it.

Scabtree had been one of the latter, and in Toadpipe's defense, he had just been an eager minion then. Still, their plan wasn't exactly the type Marlowe would have written about.

"Hate ta say ah told ya so, fellah, but get-rich-quick schemes just don't work," said Douglas. The TV started to flame again. "Now ah guessed who ya were, so ya lose."

Then the television exploded, and Douglas shielded himself with his Duel Disk to protect himself from the flying glass. When he looked, an imp – one of the imps that had helped Yolanda and Ramón escape – was on the TV stand, holding a Duel Disk almost as big as himself.

"Afraid not," he chuckled, his true voice sounding like the sound of a kazoo on a scratchy record. "I had my fingers crossed! My move!"

Like THIS is a surprise… thought Douglas. I suppose he technically cheated and I could abort this duel, but… I think I'll finish this…

He glanced down at something on the floor as Toadpipe drew.

(Douglas: 7,800) - - - - - - - - - - (Toadpipe: 6,400)

"I guess I'm gonna draw Recycle!" laughed Toadpipe. He drew. "What do you know, I did!"

The blast shot from the Miracle Draw card, hitting Douglas in the stomach again.

"Lucky you…" mumbled Douglas.

The small devil set a card, and a reversed monster appeared next to Wid. Then Wid himself knelt, using the two boards like shields. (1,800 DEF)

"Next, I'm gonna play Recycle right now," he said, as yet another Continuous Spell appeared in front of him, giving him three total. Indeed, along with Miracle Draw, he only had one space left in his Spell Zone.

"Time to use Goblin Circus again…"

He took his deck from the holder, then looked at the bottom… Then he grinned widely at Douglas, turning it towards him so he could see it. Torrential Tribute, a very powerful Trap Card. Toadpipe slowly took the card and slid it on top of his deck.

"I'm done…" he said, his unpleasant grin showing tiny, sharp teeth.

(Douglas: 6,800) - - - - - - - - - - (Toadpipe: 6,400)

"Kinda liked you better in the TV," grumbled Douglas. "Draw…"

He put the card aside, then pointed to the two monsters. "Attack Secret Sect Druid Wid with Arcane Radiance!"

The Creator flexed, and then a burning bolt from his chest tore into the Spellcaster, vaporizing it.

"Oh, the horror!" laughed Toadpipe. "Oh, but wait… Since Wid got walloped, I can take one Continuous Spell from my Graveyard, and then set it."

Slowly, yet another set card appeared with the others.

"And by the way, that's one of the cards I tossed when I played Reasoning, so I hope your memory's clear."

The Felgrand Dragon's radiant breath thundered towards the set monster. A young woman dressed in camouflage jeans, a silver tank top, and a bandoleer and holster with a tattoo on her arm and short, brown hair appeared briefly on the card, cowering before she shattered.

"Thank you," said Toadpipe. "Silver Fox's Flip Effect lets me take another Continuous Spell from my deck."

Douglas said nothing. He just looked at the imp in the eye.

"What?" asked Toadpipe.

"Eh, nothing," said Douglas. "Turn over."

"Feh," said the miniature fiend. "I guess that my next draw is Torrential Tribute!"

He cackled as he drew a card… Then stopped in mid-laugh.

"Wait, this isn't…" He shouted as the Miracle Draw's blast hit him, almost knocking him off his perch.

(D: 6,800) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 5,400)

"Ah'm guessin' Scabtree taught you how ta duel, right?" laughed Douglas. "Well he was no better at that than he was at planning!"

"How…" groaned Toadpipe.

"Ya stupid brain-fart, ya used a search card!" laughed Douglas. "That means yer deck was shuffled!" He stopped laughing. "Yer strategy could be deadly, but even the most lethal card in the game is worthless if a duelist doesn't know how ta use it right."

"Oh, what do you know?" snarled the imp. He cleared his throat, and his tone changed quickly. "I can finally use the effect of Recycle. Every Standby Phase, for 300 Life Points, I can take a Spell or Trap Card and put it at the bottom of my deck."

Douglas looked rather nervous now… It was clearly obvious how Toadpipe's true strategy worked…

"Now then…" said the small devil, "I have at least three Continuous Spells, so I can Special Summon Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings!"

It slowly rose from the shadows, a huge, thin, gaunt, and incredibly ugly Dragon; only the name suggested it was female. In fact, it looked more like a cross between a Dragon and a twisted, dead tree, its scales looking at least partially like rotted wood (and smelling like it) and there were odd horns that looked like gnarled branches flanking the sides of its head, which had no face on it, other than a toothy mouth. Its wings were torn and tattered, hardly looking like they were adequate to support a beast this size in flight. (1,900 ATK)

"Well that's bad news," said Douglas.

"More than you know, fellah," said Toadpipe, "see this?"

The Continuous Spell he had set with Wid's effect lifted up. "It's called Shadow Supporters; because I have at least three Continuous Spells other than this one, I can use it, and my Dragon's Attack Score is doubled… But only when it's attacking. What do you think of that?"

"Ah think it's pretty stupid," said Douglas, even as it lifted its head and turned towards the Creator. (3,800 ATK) "If ya ask me, you'd have done better with Mage Power."

"But I didn't ask you!" shouted Toadpipe. "Destroy the Creator with Calamity Stream!"

A foul, rotting cloud of filth shot from the ugly Dragon's jaws, covering Felgrand Dragon, literally causing it to decay and rust. Within seconds, it collapsed into a pile of dust and rusty metal.

"Ugh…" said Douglas.

(D: 5,300) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 5,4\100)

"It gets worse, Doug," giggled Toadpipe. "Now, you have to discard one of your cards while I get to draw one."

Douglas looked at him strange, then he selected a card from his hand – rather quickly – and discarded it. Toadpipe barely even noticed as he made a draw.

"Maybe old Gordon had a point there," he giggled. "He was pretty smart for a human…"

"Uh, does the term 'fictional character' mean anything ta you?" asked Douglas.

"Eh?" said Toadpipe.

"Never mind…" sighed the Shadowchaser. "Ah suppose yer gonna use Goblin Circus now? And by the way, it's Douglas."

Toadpipe scowled again, frowning with one sharp lower bicuspid exposed. "Yes I am," he growled, "but this time I'm going to use its second effect and banish that card."

Banish it? he thought. Why would he… Hmm…

"Feh," said the imp, waving his hand."

Douglas drew, resulting in a rather unusual Equip Spell Card.

All right, now we're talkin', he thought.

He flipped a card forward. "I'm gonna summon Ghost Ship first," he said, "but to do that, I gotta banish a Light-Attribute monster from my Graveyard."

The Creator slipped out of his discard pile; as he disposed of it in the sporran in the front of his kilt, a glowing, spectral pirate ship with tattered sails and a skull on the prow floated through the wall behind him. (1,900 ATK)

"Now ah'll the Equip Spell, Eternal Reverse." He played the card, and a sickly green shade covered Ghost Ship. "Once per turn ah can use this to move one'a your Spell or Trap Cards ta face-down position."

A pair of ghostly pirates appeared behind the Miracle Draw card and gave it a shove, slamming it down from activated to set.

"An' don't try activating it now, 'cause ya can't until next turn! But I'm gonna get rid of it before ya get a chance… With the Spell Card, Psychic Cyclone!"

A new Quickplay appeared in front of him. "This destroys a set card, but I gotta guess if it's a Spell or Trap first. I guess right, I get to draw once. So I guess Trap!"

A fierce wind blew from the card, blowing Miracle Draw up and over the Mausoleum, until it smashed against the rear wall.

"Congratulations," said Toadpipe, as Douglas drew. "Get any more?"

"Actually, yes," Douglas replied. "Forget about this guy?"

Felgrand Dragon's brilliant breath weapon blasted at Dragon Queen of Tragic endings… But to his shock, there was a recoil that knocked him on his behind and blew both monsters to little pieces.

"Wha…"

(D: 5,300) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 2,600)

"Shadow Supporters has another effect," chortled Toadpipe. "If I get rid of it when the same monster is attacked, it can drag your monster down with it.

"Any more bright ideas… Doug?"

"Your move…" said Douglas, through his teeth.

"You know, Doug," said the imp, eliciting another snarl from the Shadowchaser, "I gotta thank you…" He drew a card. "I really had no way of knowing what the hell this card was!

"See, I banished that card last turn because it was…"

"Card from a Different Dimension…" sighed Douglas.

"Exactly, but I guess you benefit a little too…"

Indeed, Douglas drew twice as Toadpipe snatched two cards.

"And it's still my Standby Phase, so I can use the effect of Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings," continued the little devil. "I'll send my third Triangle Force to the Graveyard to bring her back in Defense Mode."

The twisted Dragon rose to the surface, sitting and crossing its arms. (2,600 DEF)

"Let's see your Ghost Ship get past that. I think that's all I'm gonna do this turn, so it's your move… Doug. I gotta say, it's been fun, but I'll be glad to get back on track again… The soul futures idea was a mistake, but I have a new gig now, and it's far more promising…"

He stopped. He looked at Douglas, who was listening closely.

"Oh, I'm not going to tell you! You think I want to be demoted even further?"

No reply.

"Uh, don't answer that. Your move…"

Douglas drew a card, not changing his expression in the least.

"I play… The Shallow Grave," he finally said.

He threw the Spell Card in his Disk with a wide stroke, and a set monster appeared between his Dragon and the Ship.

"You summon one too," he said, watching as a set monster appeared on the opposing side, "but I'm pretty sure what it is… And now it's walkin' the plank! Attack with Phantom Broadside!"

There was a loud, piercing howl, and a mob of ghostly, shapes flew from the Ship. Gravi-Crush Dragon appeared kneeling on the card as the mob combined into a ghostly skeleton wearing a tattered pirate outfit; it lifted a glowing cutlass, and sliced the defending monster in twain.

"You'll pay for that," grumbled Toadpipe. "I still have the monster that counts…"

"Not fer long," replied Douglas. "It's your move."

"Oh, I'll move all right," said Toadpipe, as he drew. "And I have plenty to do this time! I'll set one card…" A new reversed card appeared. "And use Emergency Provisions."

A huge worm with a big mouth slithered up from behind and chomped down on the card he had set – Card from a Different Dimension again, he say it briefly before it was eaten – as his Life Points edged up.

He's getting smarter, thought Douglas. On his next turn, he can use that combo to banish that card again…

"Then I'll use three more cards, two concealed, one revealed!" continued the imp.

Indeed, he fit three more cards into his Spell Zone, two of set, and one standing upright. It was a powerful and very potent one…

"Burden of the Mighty…" muttered Douglas.

Ghost Ship creaked, swayed, and moaned a bit. (1,400 ATK)

"It loses 100 Attack Points for every Level it has," chortled Toadpipe. Then Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings stood up. (1,900 ATK)

"I'll also summon… Malice Doll of Demise!"

There was a horrible, demonic cackling, and an evil wooden puppet holding a nasty-looking hatchet appeared. (1,600 ATK)

Well that's a heapin' helpin' a bad news, thought Douglas.

"Scuttle that ship!" ordered Toadpipe, as the evil toy lifted the weapon over its head. "Heaver Cleaver!"

It cackled again, hurtling the weapon. However, upon hitting the hull of Ghost Ship, the larger Fiend shivered a little and the sickly green aura vanished, but it stayed afloat.

"Eternal Reverse has a second effect," said Douglas. He discarded the Equip Spell. "Ah can get rid of it ta protect it once."

"Hmmph!" replied the imp. "Using my Dragon's breath on that thing could only improve it, but still…"

The Dragon Queen's stream of horrid rot struck the ship, staving a hole in the side, quickly crumbling what was left of the decrepit craft to dust.

(D: 4,700) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 3,600)

"Her effect activates again, so dump it!"

"Actually," said Douglas, "this time ah'd be happy to."

Toadpipe watched with a puzzled expression as he chose one of the three cards he had and discarded it. Then there was a blast of fire from the space in front of him, and a phoenix made of fire blasted out of the floor. The phoenix turned into a young woman with burning flames for hair wearing a violet and blue spandex suit with a plunging neckline; she knelt in defense mode. (0 DEF)

"Since I sent Renege Warrior from my hand to the Graveyard, she moves right to the field. She's a feisty one, ain't she?"

"Yeah, yeah, real clever…" said Toadpipe. He fit one more card into his Duel Disk, and a new set card appeared. "I'm done!"

Douglas grumbled as he drew, pondering, as duelists often did at times like this, which side of the debate over the use of Heavy Storm had the more valid argument.

The card he drew wasn't all-too useful, but…

"Ah Flip Summon my newest monster…"

The set monster that he had summoned with The Shallow Grave made a 90 degree turn, and then turned topside…

With a battlecry of "Do-do-do-do-DO!" a seven-foot-tall Warrior leapt upward from the card. His most distinguishing feature was his hat, which was the size and shape of a hat box, but made of some sort of metal. He also wore an armored tunic, pantaloons, gauntlets, reinforced armored boots, a cape with a fur collar, and a cloth mask.

He drew a long, flashing katana as he landing, his eyes squarely on Toadpipe. (0 ATK)

"Ah know what yer probably gonna say," said Douglas. "Dododo Swordsman's got no points, right? Well because I flipped him first, his Score goes up from zero ta 3,500!"

"Wait…" said Toadpipe.

"Of course, yer Burden of the Mighty subtracts 800 from that…" continued Douglas. (2,700 ATK) "But flipping him also means he can also destroy two of yer monsters! Wipe 'em out, Swordsman!"

"Do-do-do-do-DO!" yelled the monster again. He lifted its sword, and it burned with orange fire.

"I use the Trap Card, Wide Bracer!" yelled Toadpipe.

Dododo Swordsman slammed its katana down, and a shockwave crashed across the whole room, blowing the candy wrappers and crushed cans against the walls and knocking over a lamp. Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings was blown to bits quickly… But Malice Doll of Demise was able to resist the destructive blow. It was seemingly thrown back against the three Continuous Spells, bracing against them like one would against a wall.

"Like the name suggests, this Trap lets one of my monsters use those Spells to protect itself for the rest of the turn, both from battle and your card effects."

Douglas rubbed his chin. Dododo Swordsman turned to him slightly. "Go on," said the Shadowchaser.

The Warrior's sword ripped across the evil puppet, and while it seemed unhurt, that was more than could be said for Toadpipe. He shrieked and nearly fell off his perch. Nearly.

(D: 4,700) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 2,500)

"Ouch…" he said. "Ugh… Ergh…"

"Hmmph, you'd think after a few centuries in the Blood War a guy could handle a little pain," said Douglas. "Ah'll set two more cards face-down an' that's all."

Toadpipe watched as the two set cards materialized. He was even angrier now. This duel had gone on longer than he'd hoped, it wasn't amusing anymore, and he was really going to be in trouble with the boss if he didn't make it to the rendezvous point. (He really wasn't supposed to still be here, and he had no doubt that Slubgob and Triptweeze – those were the other two imps that aided in the prison break – would tattle on him if they thought it would bring their performance review up even one percent. Not that he wouldn't do the same to them if he had the chance.)

Still, he cheered up quite a bit after he drew a card.

"Check this out, Doug!" he laughed. "I just drew my secret weapon! But first thing's first… I get rid of one Continuous Spell to bring my Dragon back from the Graveyard, this time in Attack Mode.

Goblin Circus disappeared, and again, the wicked creature appeared again, just as menacing as before. (1,900 ATK)

"You're getting rid of that one?" gasped Douglas.

"We might see it later," replied Toadpipe. "You see, because I have three Continuous Spells with the same name in my Graveyard, I can get rid of them all…"

The three copies of Triangle Force flew upward and vanished into a spiral.

"…to Special Summon… the Steel Sentinel of Gond!"

It was very hard to describe the feeling that came from the spot where the new monster appeared. It didn't seem like Good or Evil, nor did Douglas feel any aura of fear, dread, or even inspiration.

What the creature did seem to emit was incredible determination and strength, combined with… uncertainty, an odd combination that for some reason, seemed to fit together perfectly here.

In any case, the monster itself was an armored warrior with a jackal's head, its skin grey and rough. It looked hulking and bulky, its bestial face totally emotionless… Like a walking slab of stone.

It knelt, one hand on its knee, the other on the ground. (2,600 DEF)

"The Steel Sentinels of Gond…" said Douglas. "Wait, those guys are… Uhm…"

"Powerful soldiers of the Planes of Law recruited from the souls of warriors who died fighting for lost causes," answered Toadpipe. "Durable, loyal, and as tough and unyielding as the iron they resemble. Kind of like you."

Douglas didn't know if that was a compliment or not, but Toadpipe went on.

"In fact, who knows? Very soon, you might be able to apply for a job as one. In fact, pretty much your whole organization could. They always welcome recruits, and after all…"

"Wait a minute…" interrupted. "Yer saying the Shadowchasers is a 'lost cause'?"

Toadpipe stopped suddenly. "Uh…" said the imp. It was evident that the tiny fiend had said too much.

"What did you mean by that, ya scrawny little runt?" demanded Douglas.

"Uh… maybe you should just forget I said that," said the imp. "Let me explain how Fido here works. He has zero Attack Points right now, so he really can't attack.

"But each time I start my turn, he'll gain one Steel Counter. If he's got at least three of them, I can get rid of one Continuous Spell per Counter, and then he can not only attack, he can attack directly, with an Attack Score of 1,000 times the number of Spells.

"Oh, and by the way, so long as I have at least three of them, you can only attack him."

"Then yer gonna need more than the two ya got," replied Douglas.

As if to answer, Toadpipe used the last card in his hand, and another very notorious Continuous Spell appeared.

Ah, ah'm so screwed… thought Douglas.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

Once more – for the final time, sincerely – we must travel elsewhere, and elsewhen. Specifically, back to Atlantic City, to one of the better apartment complexes. It was one AM now, six hours since Sofia's duel had ended.

Most dark elves who live freely among humans are strictly nocturnal, as sunlight hurts not only their eyes, but weakens them and exhausts them quickly. Ones known as celebrities, like Maddy Webber, rarely have much of a problem with this; the lifestyle of folks like them was one where almost everyone rarely saw the light of day.

Still, it was possible for them to grow accustomed to sunlight after spending enough time adjusting to it over the course of a few years.

Ashla Da'rok was like this, and it was very much to her benefit. She was the only permanent Shadowchaser presence in New Jersey, and being able to function equally well during the day or night was a useful skill.

That and being a light sleeper, as elves – even the dark variety – tended to be, no matter when she found the time to get eight hours of rest in. As such, she wasn't all too startled when the phone next to her bed rang.

"Mmm?" she said, answering it. "Who…" She listened. "Opal who? OH! Right."

She turned on the light and sat up, rubbing the sleep dust from her eyes. "Uh, no, Sofia isn't with me, why should she?" She listened again. "I see…"

She listened again. "Okay, okay, I'll see who else is around. Okay, I guess so…"

In Raleigh, the djinn hung up, with a worried sigh. Normally she wouldn't be all too concerned if Sofia had been so late past the time she said she'd be back.

It was just that, even with her magic that was normally infallible and routine for this sort of task, Opal couldn't locate the missing Shadowchaser at all…

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"This one's my favorite," said Toadpipe, gesturing to the Ectoplasmer card. "But before I use it…" His Trap Card lifted up. "It's called Cloak and Dagger. I name one monster, and if you summon it, I can use this to eradicate it before you get a chance to use it. So I'm naming Felgrand Dragon.

"See Doug, I learn from my mistakes. Now let's see what we can do with this… Get that Renege Warrior!"

Malice Doll of Demise hurled its axe again, it spiraled through the air, and the flaming Warrior vanished in a small cloud of soot.

"Given the look on your face, I assume you know that when I end my turn, I can use the Spell Card to sacrifice a monster, extracting its soul and turning it into a destructive bolt of ectoplasm that deals damage equal to half the monster's Attack Score."

"If ya assumed I knew, why'd ya explain it anyway?" asked Douglas. "Do ya just like hearing yourself talk?"

"I'm ending my turn, smartass!" snapped Toadpipe. He stabbed his thumb down, and as he had explained, the Fiend puppet's soul was sucked into the Spell Card. As the Doll disappeared, a ghostly, howling phantasm shot towards Douglas with a scream.

"GAH!" he cursed. "Son of a…"

(D: 3,900) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 2,500)

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer… he thought. He made his draw, then looked at the remaining two monsters.

Okay, that Doll will be back next turn, he thought, an' if ah can only attack that Sentinel… Meh, guess ah'll have ta try the direct route…

"Attack the Sentinel!" he ordered. "Impact Slash!"

Again, the towering Warrior lifted his blade, and leapt at the crouching Sentinel…

"Your Warrior may be almost unstoppable," laughed Toadpipe, "but can he handle one that's immovable?"

Indeed, as Dododo Warrior struck the creature, his sword shattered against it, and he stumbled backwards.

"HOW?" gasped Douglas. "He was…"

"Stronger?" asked Toadpipe. "True… But I can get rid of a Continuous Spell to protect him."

Indeed, Burden of the Mighty was gone now, and Dododo Warrior's Score returned to 3,500.

"At least it cost ya one Spell," he said.

"For now," replied Toadpipe, "but now what?"

Douglas stopped, and rubbed his chin.

Guy's got a point, he thought. When I end my turn, ah'm gonna have ta give up a monster because of Ectoplasmer, and not only is he my only one, but his true Attack Score is zero. It won't hurt Toadpipe one bit.

He looked at the card he had drawn, then his two set cards… Then he played the card.

"Huh? Dimensionhole?" said Toadpipe.

"Yup," said Douglas. A black hole appeared behind Dododo Warrior, and he was sucked through it. "I'll end my turn now, and he'll be back on my next one."

"Assuming you get one," replied Toadpipe. "First I draw, and to be on the safe side, well, remember my Silver Fox? She has another effect.

"I can banish her along with a Continuous Spell in my Graveyard to recover one from my Graveyard."

You gotta be kiddin' me, thought Douglas.

Clearly the imp wasn't, because he tossed Silver Fox's card along with Burden of the Mighty over his shoulder, then took Goblin Circus from his discard pile.

"You get one draw too, but it's not like I'm going to give you a chance to use it," continued the imp.

Douglas made a draw, as Toadpipe looked at what he had for a minute: In addition to Goblin Circus, he had drawn another Continuous Spell.

He smiled maliciously, and then used it.

"Yellow Luster Shield?" asked Douglas. "Ya use that?"

"Why not?" asked Toadpipe. "Not only do I now have yet another Continuous Spell, but with 300 more Defense Points, simply launching a successful attack against my Sentinel will be difficult."

(2,900 ATK)

"Now, via its own effect, Malice Doll of Demise returns," he said, as the Fiend reappeared. (1,600 ATK) "And just to be extra safe, I'll pay 300 Life Points to use Recycle, and put Card from a Different Dimension on the bottom of my deck."

"So ya can banish it with Goblin Circus, right?" asked Douglas. "For someone so sure of himself, ya seem to be takin' a lot of precautions."

"What do you…" started Toadpipe.

"Tell ya what, squidge-eye…" said Douglas. "Ya give me yer best shot, then ah'll give ya mine."

Toadpipe almost dropped his cards in shock when Douglas had said 'squidge-eye', and the expression of shock quickly turned to one of rage. That was devil-slang for a lemure, the lowliest form of devil, the point in which a damned soul in hell is no longer considered a mortal soul. Devils considered them the gutter-trash of hell used as expendable troops at best, and comparing to anyone else to one was pretty insulting.

"Okay, slump-bag?"

Toadpipe looked like he was going to explode with anger now. 'Slump-bag' was devil-slang for a nupperibo, and being compared to one of them was even worse.

"YOU ASKED FOR IT!" he shouted. Malice Doll of Demise laughed hideously, then hurled its axe, hitting Douglas in the chest.

(D: 2,300) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 2,200)

C'mon, come and get me ya little… he thought.

Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings' breath weapon blasted at the burley Shadowchaser…

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" laughed the imp. "Looks like I was right, you talk like some tough old Scott, but when you try to act like one…"

"Ah shut up," said Douglas.

The smoke cleared, and he was smiling, with his arms only were his Life Points still at 2,300, there was a monster on the field, a large nautilus with a bony shell and four flippers. (1,900 ATK)

"It's called a Depth Gardna," he said, "both a Trap and a monster. By activating it when you attacked me, its Attack Score and Level became the same as yer Dragon."

"Why in the world would you have that?" asked Toadpipe.

"And btw, to answer your original question as to why I think I'm so tough 'just' because I 'wear this 'costume'?" said Douglas, ignoring the question. "Ah don't need the 'costume', Toadpipe. I could start wearin' a sweatshirt and jeans, if I wanted to. Hell, ah could dress like a clown if ah wanted, but it wouldn't change what's here…"

He hit himself in his chest.

"It's in my blood. It's just something ah was born with.

"Nemo me impune lacessit. That's the royal motto of Scotland. It's a motto that I – and everyone else there – lives by. Nobody attacks me with impunity.

"And the name is Douglas. As in Douglas Bowman Junior."

For a few tense seconds, Toadpipe could only look at Douglas.

"Junior…" said the imp. "You mean…"

"Ya insult me, fellah, yer insulting with my whole family," replied Douglas.

Toadpipe shivered a little, then he played a card causing Goblin Circus to appear.

"I use the effect of Goblin Circus…" he hissed. "As you said, I'll banish the bottom card. Then I'll use the effect of Ectoplasmer…"

Malice Doll of Demise collapsed, and the ghostly spirit screamed again as it flew at Douglas. He barely seemed to care this time.

(D: 1,500) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 2,200)

"My move…" said Douglas. First he cracked his knuckles. Then he drew, and the black hole appeared again, and Dododo Swordsman stepped out. (0 ATK)

"So?" asked Toadpipe. "It's powerless now."

"Doesn't mean useless," replied Douglas. "Ah'm using the Spell Card, Level Mirroring! When ah use this, ah can make one ah my monsters the same Level as one ah yours. So ah can make Depth Gardna the same Level as… I think ah'll choose… Steel Sentinel of Gond!"

The Spell Card appeared, then Steel Sentinel's card, next to a depiction of Depth Gardna, as a Monster Card. Steel Sentinel's eight Level stars were superimposed over Depth Gardna's six, and then Sentinel's card disappeared, leaving Gardna's card.

"Which means Depth Gardna is Level 8 now. See why I have 'that'? It has a million uses. An' now, as promised, ah'll give ya all ah've got. Ah use Call of the Haunted."

His Trap Card flipped up, and a man in bronze armor, and a peaked helmet, with a curved sword appeared. (1,600 ATK)

"The Creator Incarnate," he said. "I discarded him when I used the Creator's effect the first time."

"So?" asked Toadpipe. "What good is he? You banished the Creator when you summoned Ghost Ship."

"Ah know, ah did that on purpose," replied Douglas. He flipped another card around. "It's called Light of Redemption, and by payin' 800 Life Points ah' can return the big guy ta my hand.

"Meanin' ah can sacrifice his number-two here ta Special Summon him.

The Warrior vanished in a ray of golden sunlight, and the titan of gold appeared once again. (2,300 ATK)

Big deal, thought Toadpipe. His life points are low enough, and if he tries to summon Felgrand Dragon, my Trap will get rid of it quick.

"Next, I'll discard this card," said Douglas. He tossed his last card. "Now for the Creator to… Create!"

The golden behemoth slammed its fist into the ground again, and a familiar armored form leapt out of the ground. (0 ATK)

"Swordsman of Revealing Light?" asked Toadpipe.

"That's the one," he said. "And now, ah'll use Dododo Swordsman, Depth Gardna, and Swordsman of Revealing Light ta build the Overlay Network!"

"That's a three monster Rank 8 Xyz Summon!" screamed Toadpipe.

"You bet!" replied Douglas. The three monsters disappeared… And then a much, much taller, much more hulking statue-like monster emerged. Standing a full eight feet tall, it had a golden breastplate, greaves, a Spartan-style helmet (without the crest) and four arms, each holding a long, nasty-looking bronze scimitar. (2,500 ATK)

"What do ya think a' Duke Furyon the Furious? An' by summoning him, ah can take a Level 8 monster from ma Graveyard, and equip it ta him. This time, ah'm choosin' Felgrand Dragon, an' since this isn't considered a summoning at all, yer Cloak and Dagger can't do anything."

"So what's the point?" asked Toadpipe.

"Simple," replied Douglas. "By getting' rid of an Overlay Unit, ah' can activate a one of Duke Furyon's three effects. The one ah'm gonna use lets me Special Summon another monster from my Graveyard that's the same Type as Felgrand Dragon. A Dragon, naturally."

What can he mean? thought Toadpipe. Yamata Dragon can't be Special Summoned… Did my Dragon make him discard his Tyrant Dragon? No, he'd need another Dragon to summon that one…

Then, to his utmost shock, a Dragon he'd never seen before erupted onto the field as a furious storm swept through the Mausoleum. It looked like a gaunt, almost skeletal Dragon, its ribs showing through sallow skin pulled tight over its bones. Its huge wings were web-like membranes and its face had a sharp beak in front and tangled, white hair in the back. (2,700 ATK)

"WHAT?" cried Toadpipe.

"This is the Gemini Monster, Darkstorm Dragon!" announced Douglas. "And by Gemini Summoning it, which I can do because I haven't Normal Summoned yet, I can unlock its effect.

"It's effect? By sending one of my Spells or Traps to the Graveyard…"

Darkstorm Dragon snapped up the inert Call of the Haunted card and ate it in two bites.

"…he can blow all other Spells and Traps on the field away!"

"No… wait…" said Toadpipe. "STOP!"

There was no stopping it. Darkstorm Dragon shrieked loudly, and beat its wings, intensifying the storm to the strength of a hurricane. Douglas' Advance Force was blown to pieces first, and then the Mausoleum around him crumbled into dust, but nearly all of the overconfident imp's strategy followed; first the Cloak and Dagger card, then Ectoplasmer, Recycle, Yellow Luster Shield, and finally, Goblin Circus. All of them flew across the room and shattered.

As the candy wrappers and other trash fluttered back to the floor as the winds subsided, Douglas glanced down at the floor to make sure, now that the Field Spell was gone. Then he looked up again.

"Now that your Sentinel is back down to 2,600 Defense Points an' you have no Continuous Spells left," said Douglas. "Darkstorm Dragon… Destroy!"

The Gemini was only two eager to comply. As the Steel Sentinel looked tremendous pneumatic blast spiraled from its jaws, and the guardian statue fell backwards with a dent in its frontal armor, falling to pieces when it landed.

"Yer Dragon is next!" yelled Douglas. The Creator fired a bolt from its breastplate, hitting Dragon Queen of Tragic Endings and reducing it to a cloud of hot ash and dust.

"If there was one monster ah could say ah was glad to see get gibbed…" he said.

"Wait… No, no…" said Toadpipe, looking at Duke Furyon the Furious. "Mercy…"

Douglas looked at him with a rather tired expression.

"You'll live," he said. He motioned to Duke Furyon, who lifted his four blades. "Attack directly with Quadratic Guillotine!"

The scream that came from the imp was a piercing shriek that made every customer in the store stop and turn their heads for a minute. Some described it as "an anguished cry of a thing from Hell".

They were right; a sorry excuse for one, perhaps, but he was.

(D: 700) - - - - - - - - - - (T: 0)

"That's it, Toadpipe," said Douglas. The Xyz disappeared, and the Holo System shut down. "Ya tried my patience enough, and now yer comin' with me."

As he said this, he slowly lifted a wire on the floor with his foot…

Toadpipe sat up, taking deep, guttural gasps. "Don't count on it, you filthy son of a…"

Douglas had heard enough. He grabbed the wire – the television wire – and yanked it hard, causing the podium Toadpipe was sitting on to topple over and the imp to fall with another shriek.

"Don't you ever say that about my mother, ya creep," growled the Scotsman. "C'mere ya little…"

Toadpipe tried to crawl away, only for Douglas to seize him.

"HEY, leggo!" screamed the imp. "What are you…"

Douglas flipped open the latch on his sporran as the imp continued to shout.

"WHAT… You'd better not, you hear me!" he cursed. "Don't you dare you muscle bound piece of shit, I'll…"

"Oh, be quiet…" ordered Douglas. He crammed the struggling creature in the purse as he unfastened it, then shut it tight. "That'll hold ya."

Then he looked around on the floor where some of Toadpipe's cards had fallen. The Steel Sentinel of Gond wasn't there, oddly, but he quickly found Silver Fox.

He picked the card up and looked at it. What had mostly disgusted him during the duel was how Toadpipe had just thrown it away like garbage.

He lifted the sporran and looked at it. So, what ta do with him now? he thought. Well, we'll see what the chief says when ah get back…

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TRIANGLE FORCE (Spell Card)

Continuous Spell

Image: The three Magnet Warriors flying forward.

Effect: Upon activation, select up to 2 copies of "Triangle Force" from your deck and activate them.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

ETERNAL REVERSE (Spell Card)

Equip Spell

Image: Two green, rubbery hands attached to a set Duel Monsters card by wiry strings.

Effect: Equip only to a monster you control. Once per turn, you may select 1 face-up Spell or Trap Card your opponent controls and set it in face-down position; your opponent cannot activate it during the same turn. If the equipped monster would be destroyed by battle, destroy this card instead.

Note: "Triangle Force" and "Eternal Reverse" were first used in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode "The Ultimate Face-Off (Part 1)".

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

MIRACLE DRAW (Trap Card)

Continuous Trap

Image: A hand reaching for a deck covered by a soft glow.

Effect: During your Draw Phase, state the name of a card before drawing. If the card you draw is the same card as the one you name, your opponent takes 1,000 points of damage; if it is not, you take 1,000 points of damage.

Note: "Miracle Draw" was first used in the "Yu-Gi-Oh GX" episode "Nature of the Draw".

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

PSYCHIC CYCLONE (Spell Card)

Quickplay Spell

Image: An ominous-looking man's face behind his hand holding up two fingers, which are surrounded by a whirlwind.

Effect: Select 1 face-down Spell or Trap Card your opponent controls and declare if it is a Spell or Trap Card. Destroy that card. If you were right, draw 1 card. If not, your opponent draws 1 card.

Note: "Psychic Cyclone" was first used in the "Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds" episode "The Lockdown Duel (Part 1)".

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

LEVEL MIRRORING (Spell Card)

Normal Spell

Image: A split image, with five golden stars on a sky-blue field on the top, and five dark blue stars on a black field on the bottom.

Card Effect: Select 1 face-up Monster you control and 1 face-up Monster your opponent controls. Your monster's Level becomes the same as the opposing monster's Level until the End Phase of the turn.

Note: "Level Mirroring" was first used in the "Yu-Gi-Oh 5Ds" episode "Mark of the Monkey (Part 2)"

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DEPTH GARDNA (Trap Card)

Continuous Trap

Image: A nautilus with a spiral, spikey shell, much like the card appears as a monster after activation.

Effect: During damage calculation, if you would take battle damage from a direct attack: That damage becomes 0, then Special Summon this card as an Effect Monster (Fish/Water/Level5/ATK?/DEF?) (This card is also still a Trap Card.) This card's ATK and DEF become equal to the amount of battle damage you would have taken at the activation of this card.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

SHADOW SUPPORTERS (Spell Card)

Continuous Spell

Image: Marauding Captain being accosted by three of the Goblin Attack Force goblins on a street; lurking in the shadows behind the goblins in Lady Ninja Yae and Goe Goe the Gallant Ninja, about to ambush them.

Effect: Upon activation, select a monster you control with 2,000 or less ATK. During your Battle Phase only, the ATK of the selected monster is doubled. If this monster is destroyed by battle during your opponent's Battle Phase, destroy the attacking monster. If you have less than three Continuous Spells other than a "Shadow Supporters", destroy this card and you take 2,000 points of damage.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

WIDE BRACER (Trap Card)

Normal Trap

Image: Science Soldier blasting two machine guns with his back to a brick wall as bullets from an enemy in front of him nick both his armor and the wall behind him.

Effect: Activate when you control 2 or more face-up Continuous Spell cards and your opponent activates a card effect that would destroy more than 1 monster. Select 1 Level 4 or lower monster you control; the selected monster cannot be destroyed by battle or by card effects this turn.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

SILVER FOX (Monster Card)

Warrior/Earth/Effect/Lvl3/1,200/1,300

Effect: FLIP: Add 1 Continuous Spell Card from your deck to your hand; you may not set or activate it during the same turn. If this card is in your Graveyard on a turn after the one in which its Flip Effect was activated, you may select 2 Continuous Spell Cards in your Graveyard; then, banish this card and 1 or the selected Continuous Spell Cards to add the other selected Continuous Spell Card to your hand. If you use this effect, your opponent draws 1 card.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

STEEL SENTINEL OF GOND (Monster Card)

Warrior/Earth/Effect/Lvl10/0/2,600

Effect: Cannot be Normal Summoned or set. Can only be Special Summoned via its own effect, and cannot be summoned any other way. This card is Special Summoned – from your hand – by banishing 3 Continuous Spells with the same name from your Graveyard. If you control 3 or more Continuous Spells, your opponent cannot attack any monster you control except this one. If this card would be destroyed and you have 3 or more Continuous Spell Cards, you may send 1 Continuous Spell Card to the Graveyard instead. During each of your Standby Phases, place one Guardian Counter on this card. (Max 5) When this card has 3 or more Guardian Counters, you may remove all of this card's Guardian Counters and destroy up to 1 Continuous Spell Card you control so that this card can attack your opponent directly that turn; if this card attacks directly using this effect, its ATK becomes equal to the number of Continuous Spell Cards destroyed x1,000 during the Damage Step only.

0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0

DUKE FUYON THE FURIOUS (Monster Card)

Warrior/Dark/Xyz/Effect/Rank8/2,500/2,800

3 Level 8 monsters

Effect: When this card is Xyz Summoned successfully, select 1 Level 8 monster in your Graveyard and equip it to this card as an Equip Spell. Once per turn, you may detach 1 Xyz Material to use 1 of the following effects:

Increase the ATK of this card by that of the equipped monster until the End Phase of the current turn.

Special Summon 1 monster with the same Type as the equipped monster from your Graveyard.

Excavate 5 cards from your deck; if any of them are the same Type as the equipped monster, you may Special Summon 1 of them.

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Jemorille: A small decisive victory had been achieved, but still, it seemed things weren't getting better. Sofia's situation was getting worse, the only consolation Philip had being that she was alive…

…for now. He knew too much about these creatures to call their bluff. And he knew that they had given him this choice because they knew he'd lose either way.

The Determined was an organization that could trace its roots back to the American Civil War, and during that time, members had been known for compromising and bending the rules, letting themselves and their activities be known to non-members. Philip knew that he was going to be the first one to outright break them.

What would become of him? He had no idea.

Next chapter, MUCH more will be revealed, as the Fanciullo gang confronts B.B. Hood and her mysterious employer, in a chapter called "Old Time Rock and Roll".

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Shadowchaser Files

Organizations: Nightmare Emporium

Here's the situation. You meet a gorgeous woman at a bar, one who seems familiar. She tall, green-eyed, blonde-haired, and busty. And she starts to come on to you. Eventually, she suggests going over to her place to "get acquainted". You can't believe your luck, but then she tells you her name – Catherine Tranell. Now you know why she's familiar. That's the name of the hedonistic sociopath in the movie Basic Instinct, and she even looks like Sharon Stone!

Nonetheless, you go with her to her house, and after some hugging and kissing, you wind up in bed with her; when she wants to try some bondage. If you're brave enough to agree, then once she has you tied up, you barely – just barely notice that yes, there is what looks like an ice pick on the bedside table within her easy reach…

Sounds like a nightmare. Well, it is one. And it's one of the most requested nightmares a customer can experience at the Nightmare Emporium.

Other nightmares based on movies are popular. Maybe you'd like to explore Pan's Labyrinth? Be a contestant on The Running Man? (You can even bring a date for that one.) And those are just examples of the movie scenarios. Even if they don't have a nightmarish scenario you want, just describe one and give them a day; they can design it.

Why would someone pay good money to come to a place just to have nightmares? Just ask the founder, Doctor Jonathan Forrest, PhD.

Dr. Forrest is fully human (maybe he has some fey blood in him) but not many people know he's a member of the Sign of One, an organization that, like the Athar and the Guvners, got its start elsewhere in the cosmos. The Sign or One believes greatly in the power of belief, and that thought literally shapes the universe. It exists because the mind creates it. Or more appropriately, they say that it exists because their minds create it. They believe that one being – and they're certain it's one of their own – is imagining the whole multiverse, although none of them are sure which. (Many say they're a bunch of egotists and narcissists, and frankly, most of them are. Still, many of their biggest and rudest detractors have just disappeared, as if someone had just… wanted them to be gone…)

Anyway, Forrest once used holographic technology and illusionist magic (his own and that of assistants) to induce nightmares on volunteers in a way of studying the psychological effect of fear in a hope to find a cure for phobias. Pay was good, and danger was minimal, but he wasn't exactly getting the results he'd hoped.

He was about to cancel the project when a few volunteers came back asking to try it again, but, "something different this time."

Forrest at first wasn't sure why the volunteers had suddenly become interested in doing it as recreation. Then he looked into interactive RPGs and virtual reality, many of which had horror elements themselves, and he guessed that it was the same reason movie thrillers and extreme sports are popular. Sure, video games like Silent Hill and Five Nights at Freddy's are enough to cause nightmares on their own, which is the exact reason they're smash hits. Some fans want to take it further. (And Forrest has been shocked how many teenagers and young adults have considered this something to take your sweetheart to on a date.)

Explaining the magic used is complicated, but it involves a special kind of magi-tech that combines computer programed simulation – using the desired media source as a model – which can be stored on a crystalline spell component used to induce magical sleep, and the resulting dreams. Length varies, depending on the request and the duration and frequency of the customer's REM periods, which are often enhanced by the spell. A customer can choose from prerecorded scenarios; or can order a custom-made one if willing to spend more.

It all seems harmless, although there are a few things that might raise some eyebrows; Forrest requires customers to sign a waiver that absolves him and his staff of legal responsibility in case something should go wrong (which he says is standard procedure) and the waiver does say his establishment is not affiliated with any medical or psychiatric firm. (A disclaimer in their advertisements say "It is unlawful to use the equipment and personnel in this establishment for any purpose other than entertainment.") No-one has been killed yet, but some question why Forrest hasn't tried more pleasant scenarios, possibly attracting a wider variety of customers.

Many of his detractors claim that he's continuing his original research, and offers this service simply to raise money for it. (A confidentiality clause in the waver does seem to suggest this.)

Then there's the matter of the side-effects of this type of magic that tend to occur when done often in one area. It is expected that so many magically-induced nightmares are going to attract creatures that feed on human emotions, like the bastillus, or ones that are created by large amounts of concentrated fear, like feyrs. The facilities are rather lax on security measures to prevent them from appearing, but do their best to contain and store them when they show up. Why? Good question.

What many detractors worry, is that Forrest specializes in illusion magic, and some of the most powerful and most lethal spells of that school, including Phantasmal Killer and Weird. Of course, there's no evidence of wrong-doing, just rumors.

For now, the Nightmare Emporium is a success and starting to expand, as is their library of recorded scenarios.

Just read the waiver carefully and try something mild before actually putting yourself at Catherine's mercy.

Story Ideas: Dr. Forrest's true intentions have been kept open-ended intentionally, but try to avoid making him into the stereotypical "nightmare lord" villain. Plots like that have been done to death in fiction; Freddy Krueger was hardly the first, and they were more gratuitous gore than anything else.

As previously said, there are many Shadows that are attracted or created by fear and other negative emotions, and they tend to be drawn to places like this quickly, and while harmless individually, they can be potent as a group. Human emotions can be powerful when harnessed, and negative emotions can be destructive if strong enough.

Other possibilities: A hero can use the services at the Nightmare Emporium, and in the dream, see a clue pertaining to a crisis in the plot; the nightmare itself can reveal a secret about the dreamer that he'd rather keep hidden; someone could sabotage the equipment and turn the dream into a deathtrap; or maybe a story could have villains that can use night terrors as energy, and use the services to make themselves incredibly strong.

Another possibility is exploring Forrest's membership in the Sign of One. Their much-rumored ability to "erase" things and ever people by simply wanting them to go away is probably just a myth, but one can't argue that the power of belief is strong, and much stronger for them. A very old plan they were once involved in was to use their collective power to restore one of the deceased gods in the Astral Plane to life. Why they'd want to do this and exactly which god is anybody's guess, but it's doubtful the end result – if possible – would be pleasant. Not to mention the fact that, if they could do that, the power they could harness would be unearthly.

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One final note:

I'd like everyone to go to my profile and read what is written, if you could. I want this matter to be known to everyone. Thank you.