Chapter 7: Wind Queen
I think that this chapter is easily my favorite thus far. You'll see why shortly.
Serenity stirred, sitting upright. She appeared to be in a verdant field, the grass between her fingers lush and thick. The sky above was a bright baby blue, with clouds that reminded her of cotton balls. "It's so beautiful," she marveled. "And everything looks so real!" She looked out across a small lake, where a small flock of white swans floated across the still waters, leaving a small trail of ripple in their wake. Serenity pulled her knees to her chest, watching the swans. "This place doesn't seem too bad after all," she mused, enjoying the quiet scenery. Something seemed to stir the swans and they flew off, alarmed.
"That's odd." She took a quick glance around wondering what could have caused the commotion, but there was nothing. She absently watched the flight of the swans as they soared over the nearby copse of trees. Then, just as they passed over the trees, they vanished, like they had simply flown off-screen in a video. This baffled Serenity even more. "If everything is so realistic, then why did they just vanish like that? I mean, it is a virtual world, but everything else is so. . ." She trailed off, unable to complete her sentence. "Maybe it was a glitch in the programming?" She decided that she was going to investigate, so she dusted the blades of grass off her legs and shorts and made her way to the trees and beyond. There had to be an answer there."
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The cavern loomed before them when Mai flung open those courtroom doors. "Son of a—how are we supposed to get to her now?" She asked in exasperation, before storming into its depths. Tea ran shortly after her, with Yugi lagging behind the two women.
"Wait! Slow down!" Yugi panted. "I got short legs, remember?"
The cavern was dank and cold, with no natural light. The gray stone loomed over them like a tomb. Stalagmites and stalactites punctuated the otherwise bland landscape, like sentinels watching over eternity. They heard water dripping down from the ceiling, pooling into small puddles at their feet and running down in rivulets down the stone edifices, eroding and reforming all in its path. There was no breeze, so the air had a stagnant quality to it.
"It stinks in here," Tea said, her voice echoing on the stone. "Like old wet laundry."
"Thank you for that mental image," Mai replied sarcastically.
"This is different from how Noa had it set up when I was looking for Tea," Yugi remarked.
"How did he set it up for you?" Mai asked.
"It looked kind of like a tunnel from "Tron" and every now and then there were these junctures where there were doors with stars over the frame. The stars represented the level of different monsters behind them. Defeat the monsters and you could pass," Yugi explained
"Think he'll do that here?" Tea asked.
"Not with three duelists," Mai answered. "It would be too easy for us to pass through."
"Makes you wonder though. . ."Tea mused thoughtfully. "What Noa will do then."
"Nothing too stupid. I'm getting tired of these games they're playing," Mai said tersely.
"Something's bothering you." Yugi stated.
"What gave you that idea?"
"Because you never attack like that in a duel. Overkill like that is not how you play at all. Did he say something or do something?"
Mai breathed gustily, casting a glance upwards to steel herself. "He. . .he took advantage of my memories. . .Johnson pretended to be Joey in the blimp."
"Oh." That would explain why Mai had been so upset and keen on wiping Johnson off the map in a single turn. "I'm sorry."
Mai shrugged her shoulders. "The sleazebag got what he deserved in the end." The comment set Yugi on edge. Mai was never this harsh nor cutthroat during a duel.
Something's changed," Yugi thought, but decided to not bring it up. "And I think I know why."
The cave remained perpetually dark and damp, with no natural lighting to illuminate their path. Their footsteps echoed in the emptiness, alongside the continuous trickles of water. Tea shivered. "I think it might even be colder here than it was in that Arctic place."
Mai nodded, tugging at her jacket and skirt, trying to retain heat as well. "You would think that for being in some virtual world, we wouldn't be cold."
"It's unusual," Yugi admitted, peering about. "Tea, do you want my jacket?"
"Um hello? Another freezing woman over here," Mai teased. "Chivalry much?" Yugi began to stammer in confusion, heat rushing to his cheeks. Tea appeared to be just as embarrassed and Mai chuckled. "I'm just teasing you two, don't worry." Mai gave a Yugi a playful punch on the shoulder. "You're easy to mess with you know that?"
"I-um. . ." Yugi stuttered unevenly as he rubbed his shoulder. Yami's deep chuckle rattled in his head. "Yami, you're not helping."
"It is somewhat amusing," was his reply.
Tea caught a glimpse of something metallic in the distance. "Hey guys, it's a door!"
"A door?" Mai asked. "Are you sure you're not like, hallucinating or something—huh, will you look at that. It is a door."
A six foot tall door of steel was mounted into the stone fifteen yards from where they were standing. Rivets lined the edges, the traces of rust about them as rings and streaks as the humidity of the cavern taking its toll. Mai gave an experimental nudge using her hand. "It's not budging. I can hear creaking, but nothing's moving." She shoved it harder the second time, but the door refused to swing open. Growing ever more vexed, Mai pounded at the door with a fist. She stood back, with arms crossed. "Stupid door. We're gonna kick it down."
"We?"
"Well, I'm not using the royal 'we'." Mai smirked. "Okay, on three, we'll kick it at the same time."
"I feel like this plan is going to go wrong on so many levels," Yugi muttered under his breath.
"Okay. One. . .two. . .three!"
The three of them struck the door at once. With a rusted screech of metal scrapping on metal, the door swung outwards. They fell forward in an undignified heap, with hapless Yugi in between Mai and Tea.
"How did you guys find me?"
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Serenity wandered through the trees, her hands occasionally brushing up against the rough and cool bark underneath. Shafts of sunlight pierced the floor below, causing a lovely dappled affect that appeared perfect.
Too perfect, Serenity noted.
Everything here had an almost too pristine quality about it that set her on edge. Even the fallen leaves were in perfect arrangements. "Is it a trap?" she mused aloud to no one. "No, not a trap. Just a false reality, made up in some computer using. . .what were they called? Right, algorithms!"
Her thoughts were disrupted with the sound of pounding. "What was that?" It was coming from beyond the grove of trees, maybe the same place where the swans went. She went to the grove's edge, ducking behind a tree, only to peek around the trunk, should something appear. There was nothing and she crept forward. The landscape seemed distorted now, like a painting. It looked realistic, but there was no substance. Everything made sense then and Serenity felt the sensation of claustrophobia creep up on her.
She was trapped in a sort of gigantic box but a cage would be a more apt description.
The pounding noise from earlier roared back with a vengeance, even more sharper than before.
Then, a door?
An iron door swung out as Mai, Yugi and Tea stumbled out, each of them looking rather confused.
"How did you guys find me?" Serenity asked, peering down on them.
Mai recollected herself first. "Oh thank heavens we found you before they did!"
"The Big Five?"
"Yeah." As she finished, the landscape began to fizzle and pop, like a old television short circuiting, the trees and landscape phasing in and out. Underneath the facade of lush grass and crystal waters, Mai could see the makings of a warehouse or factory. Eventually the true intentions of it were known as a smelting factory emerged, an interesting paradox to what had been before. They could taste the hot tang of molten metal on their tongues, the heat on their skin. The air had a wavy property to it, like the air above hot asphalt.
A disembodied voice rang through the air, deep but robotic in choppy in structure. "It would seem that you have fallen into my trap."
"Kind of a lame one if you ask me," Tea snorted derisively, looking around.
"You won't be saying that once we take over your bodies." What sounded like heavy footsteps came closer and closer.
"Oh great, robots," Mai said, eying the robot in the formal military regalia that was a throwback to the 19th century. "So which member of the Big Five are you supposed to be?"
"I am Nezbitt. I was once the technical expert for KaibaCorp, until Seto Kaiba destroyed my military factories for his childish games. How ironic that we will be using the technologies we despise to dispose of him and his company." Nezbitt, in his robotic form, jabbed a finger at Serenity. "I will be dueling the female known as Serenity Wheeler first." A duel disk materialized into existence on her left forearm. Serenity let out a small cry of panic, trying to slip off the KaibaCorp Disk.
"You listen here Mr. Robotto-" Mai snarled, pointing. "Serenity doesn't even know how to duel! You're a coward for taking her on first!"
"It is not cowardly if it is a tactical advantage."
"I'll shove that "tactical advantage" right up your- You know what," Mai said, an idea dawning on her. Maybe she could play coach to Serenity during the duel. "Let's make this a tag team duel. Me and Serenity, versus you."
"Are you sure about this?" Tea asked.
"I already beat one member of the Big Five. A second one can't be that hard."
Nezbitt studied the possibility for only a second. If either one of them fell, during the duel, he would have an easy pass out of this place. "Very well, but no one else may interfere and you are not allowed to discuss strategy, or you'll fall into the waste below and be disqualified." Pieces of the floor slid away, revealing a pit of seething hot liquid the color of molten metal.
"Seems a bit extreme," Mai said, eying the pit of bubbling, roiling waste.
Nezbitt brandished a duel disk. "Duel!"
Serenity turned to Mai in a panic. "Mai I don't know what I'm doing. I've never played the game!"
"Serenity, I want you to listen to me right now. You're a lot braver and smarter than you think! I know you can do this and I bet you that if your brother were here right now, he would be saying the exact same thing. Don't let this Transformer wannabe freak you out. You're a Wheeler and you Wheelers don't take crap from anybody! So I say, let us kick his ass back to the scrapheap!"
Serenity swallowed nervously. "Alright. I trust you."
"I hope I'm right," Mai thought to herself. "My Deck Master will be Cyber Harpie."
"And mine will be Goddess of the Third Eye!" Serenity called out, her voice wavering a touch. She prayed that she could be as strong as Mai was. She never seemed fazed by anything, a quip always on her lips as she backed her opponent into a corner. "No wonder Joey likes her so much." The Goddess was a brunette clad in forest green robes, a sideways third eye on her forehead.
"I'll move first, then Serenity, then you. Ladies first," Mai told Nezbitt. She peeked down at her hand and it couldn't have been any more perfect. "First I play my Cyber Harpie in Attack mode, then I'm activating my Deck Master's special ability: by sending one card to my graveyard and sacrificing 800 of my Life Points, I can place one Wind Monster card from my deck to my hand. Then I'll set two cards face down and end my turn. Watch and learn, Nezbitt."
Serenity nervously drew a card. The Forgiving Maiden, that was pretty strong, right? "I summon The Forgiving Maiden, in attack mode as well!" Serenity turned to Mai. "Did I do that right?"
Mai flashed her a thumbs up. "You're doing fantastic. Keep it up."
"Hmmph, a pitiful move," Nezbitt remarked casually, eying his hand.
"Shut your trap, Mr. Robotto," Mai growled dangerously.
"And for that insolence, I'll attack her first!" Nezbitt crowed. "I summon Giga-Tech Wolf in Attack Mode and now I'll attack her Forgiving Maiden." Giga- Tech Wolf, a beast with cybernetic implants and slathering fangs lunged forward.
"Not this time!" Mai shouted. "Activate Mirror Wall!" Giga-Tech Wolf collided violently with the glass, clawing and biting fruitlessly to get to Serenity's monster. "Finish it off Serenity!"
"Now Forgiving Maiden, attack Nezbitt's monster!" The woman in robes summoned a beam of light from the heavens, piercing through the thick fur and armor. The wolf mournfully howled before being destroyed. Nezbitt's points dropped to 3850.
"You can't play that game all the time," Nezbitt chided Mai. "I'll get to her eventually."
"Yeah right," Mai snorted.
"I play a card face down and end my turn."
"Good, because it's my move and I can't wait to play it. First I move my Deck Master to the field and I sacrifice both my Harpies to summon Simorgh, Bird of Ancestry. Fun fact, since I tributed two Wind monsters to summon it, I can banish two cards from the field to your hand, so say goodbye to your face down."
"Yeah, since Mai cleared the field, that leaves him wide open for attack!" Tea exclaimed excitedly to Yugi.
"But she's not attacking," Yugi remarked. "Why isn't she?"
"Maybe she's waiting on something."
"Maybe. . ." he sounded doubtful.
Mai gave Serenity a half bow. "Take it away Serenity."
"Alright. Serenity drew. There was St. Joan, a fusion monster that required both the Forgiving Maiden and Marie, the Fallen One. "What did Tristan say about the game? Right! You can fuse monsters together to create even stronger ones using Polymerzation! But I don't have Polymerization. . ."
"I think I can help with that."
"Was that you?" Serenity asked her Deck Master.
"My ability allows me to fuse monsters together without the need for it. All you have to do is sacrifice one of your magic cards in your hand to activate it."
"That's one of the green ones, right?" Her Deck Master nodded. "I think I got this. First I summon my Lady Panther in attack mode, to sacrifice for Marie, the Fallen One." Marie the Fallen One, a young woman with tattered wings and an iron mask over her face, appeared alongside the Forgiving Maiden.
"There you go Serenity!" Mai said encouragingly.
"Then I activate Goddess of the Third Eye's ability. When I discard a magic card, she can fuse two of my monsters together, and I choose my Forgiving Maiden and Marie the Fallen one to create St. Joan!"
"My move. First I summon Cyber Falcon to the field, only to tribute it to summon Machine King. Then I move myself to the field and fuse myself with it using Polymerization and form Perfect Machine King." Perfect Machine King was sleek and imposing in stature, clad in white and red armor
"I'm now getting Gundam vibes," Yugi admitted out loud. Tea snickered in response.
"Next I activate my magic card, Clockwork Night, which turns all your monsters into Machine types. This give Perfect Machine King a bonus of 500 for each of your monsters, which brings my total up to 3700, more than enough to wipe out St. Joan. Even more so since your monster loses 500 attack points. Then, I'll take you out next turn!" Nezbitt snarled to Mai. "Now I will attack St. Joan!"
"St. Joan, defend yourself!" Serenity called out, her voice shrill with fear.
Mai slid two cards into her graveyard, and shouted, "I play my new Deck Master's special ability, Wings of Unity! By discarding two cards, with one of them being a Wind Type Monster, I can join forces with Serenity's St. Joan, which jumps St. Joan's Attack to 4700!"
"What? No, this cannot be!" Nezbitt stammered. "I—I recall my attack! I won't attack St Joan this turn!"
"Too late now," Mai scolded, wiggling her pointer finger. "According to the rules, once you declare an attack, you have to go through with it. Now go! Wings of Unity!"
"No!" Nezbitt moaned, unable to stop himself. Simorgh flew across the field, all four wings raised to the sky as St. Joan's attack soared to 4700. St. Joan deflected the blow with her longsword, shimmering with holy light thanks to Mai's monster, and thrust it through Perfect Machine King's abdomen region. He let out an unholy scream as he was blasted apart into nothing more into floating pixels in the space. There was an eerie silence in the aftermath, the metal slabs rumbling back into their original positions.
Mai sniffed scornfully. "Queen of Games, punk."
Serenity gazed in awe. She had been terrified at first, but now there was an exhilaration that sang through her veins. This must be how her friends felt when they dueled as well. "That. . .that was really awesome!"
"Well, I couldn't have done it without you." Mai told her.
"Really?"
"Really. Let's go find the boys and rub it in at how awesome we were."
In which we veer majorly off the course of canon into the ditch of "I don't give a flying shit and I do what I want." This chapter was mostly Bara's fault, but I'm not complaining because this was epic. Girl Power yo! Which I felt was desperately needed in the original series.
There was a need; I fulfilled it.
Basically, Serenity's inner monologue went like this: "I'm dueling with senpai! Senpai noticed me!"
*gets shot*
Then I completely BS'ed Simorgh's Deck Master ability and I have absolutely no shame about. Like a boss.