Chapter 11: No Mercy

The next day, back at Game Sanctuary, Yugi, Joey, and Tea all arrived. Maximus was minding the counter while Shinobi was busy in the back serving as judge for the weekly Duel Monsters Tournament currently taking place.
"Hey guys, Good to see you again." Maximus said, he then whispered to the three of them: "Remember, call us by real names, there are customers back there and they can hear us."
"Sure thing, Dan." Yugi replied. "We're looking for Mathias, have you seen him?"
"Uhh I think he's downstairs. Yeah! He's downstairs, doing some training."
Maximus then walked out from behind the counter to bring them downstairs. "Hey Sean!" Maximus shouted across the floor. Shinobi came walking over.
"I need to bring them downstairs for a minute to see Mathias, can you mind the front for a few minutes?"
"Well it will be harder to run the tournament from up here, but OK." Shinobi answered. Shinobi then looked up and gave Yugi Joey, and Tea a nod of approval. Maximus then led the three to the big black door.

Maximus pulled out a key from the pocket of his jogging pants and proceeded to unlock the door. That familiar rush of cool air greeted everyone as they proceeded down the stairs to the basement. Horus was on the dueling platform in the middle of a duel. His opponent was a short rather hefty man wearing khaki shorts and a T-Shirt with a tiger on it. The scoreboard showed Horus at 4300 Life Points and his opponent at 2300. Horus was about to begin his turn when he saw Maximus leading Joey, Yugi and Tea into the arena.
"Well, look's who's come back!" Horus excitedly said "Hey, where's Tristian?"
"He's sick." Yugi said. "He's got the Flu and wasn't up to coming. He said to tell you guys hello."
"Well now, that's mighty nice of him. Hope he feels better." Horus said. He then pointed to his opponent "Oh by the way, this guy here is James, James Triton. He's one of our students. He's been living over in the Rectory with us for about a year now. His family was killed in a car accident and he had no place to go. He's coming along quite nicely I might add. He's got a really nifty Beast Deck. But anyway what brings you back here so soon?"

Yugi spoke up "We were hoping that you would help us fine tune our new decks a bit more. They look good but we need to test them against real competition."
"I just have to finish this duel then I'll be glad to help out." Horus said. He then resumed his turn. "I draw…OK James. How many times do I have to tell you this??? DO NOT MESS WITH MY WARWOLF!!" As he spoke, his voice grew more and more intimidating. James looked scared. 'I play Snatch Steal on your precious Mad Dog of Darkness." Horus said, James's raging mutated dog jumped away from him and onto Horus's side of the field. "Now I sacrifice your doggie and summon Horus the Black Flame Dragon Level 6!" The dog faded away and was replaced by that familiar silver dragon at its Level 6 form. It spread its wings and screeched loudly.
Horus smiled. "Isn't that funny, you have 2300 Life Points and Horus has exactly 2300 Attack Points. God I love it when I score an exact kill! Horus! Crimson………….Dusk."

The dragon beat its wings and stirred up a dust cyclone surrounding James. Once big enough the dragon lit the dust on fire and burned away all of James's Life Points. As the projectors turned off, James struggled to his feet and began coughing fiercely.
Horus scooped up his deck and hopped down. "Relax, he'll be ok." Horus said James slowly gave a thumbs up sign.

"I'd better get back to the counter." Maximus said. He quickly sprinted back up the stairs towards the door. As soon as he opened the door, a hand on the other side pulled it open and Maximus was pushed down the stairs. "YAAAAAHHHH!" He screamed as he rolled down to the bottom of the stairs. Everyone ran to Maximus to check on him. "Dan!!" Horus shouted as he knelt down beside Maximus's side "Are you ok?"

Maximus groaned and grumbled "Oh man that hurt. I think I'll be ok. Just help me up please." Horus and Joey grabbed Maximus's arms and pulled him to his feet. Just then a voice rang out from the top of the stairs. "I'm back Horus, I'm gonna pay you back for what you did to me!" Everyone looked up to see a short, chubby Hispanic-man with a mean look in his eyes. He had on a plain white T-shirt and jeans. He was about the same height as Maximus but about 3 times as wide. If Shinobi were to stand on his shoulders they would form a perfect exclamation point. "So Miguel. You've finally found the courage to show your face here again," Horus said

"Who's this wacko?" Joey asked
"Oh him?" Maximus began. "Well about two years ago he became a student of ours. He was new and wanted to learn the game. He started off with some promise but he made the mistake of twisting our lessons focused solely on power alone. Then he began running his mouth that he trained with The Saints. He would also tell people 'They're great, they are showing me all sorts of powerful monsters.' Which are both big no-nos. We worry about more than just power, as you both know. Plus we tell all our students to not tell people that they train with us. It helps keep our existence as secret as possible.

"So what happened?" Tea asked
"Well." Maximus continued "Once we found out he was doing this, we pulled him down here and confronted him. I'll never forget that day:
'Miguel!' Horus said, "You have been telling people that you train with us. This is unacceptable!'
'I just want people to know that they can learn about the powerful monsters that work best.' Miguel said
'We the Saints are worried more about skill than about power.' Horus screamed in his face. I though we had drilled this lesson into you long ago, but apparently we have failed.' Miguel then tried to get in my face, that's when Horus raised up his gauntlet in Miguel's face. "YOU…………..CORNER……………NOW!!!!!" Horus screamed and Miguel was thrown into the corner of the room. We three walked up to him and the real chaos began.

'On your knees peasant!' Horus said raising his gauntlet again in Miguel's face. Miguel fell to his knees at once.
'You have failed! You are forthwith banished from The Saints!' Horus screamed
I then looked at him and had my glasses flash. He then saw an image of the fires of Hell burning him. I used so much power in this vision that he actually began to writhe in pain. I told him that if he told anyone that our hideout was here that those flames would come back and burn him ever more severely.
'Shinobi used his pendant and left a permanent message in Miguel's head. 'If you even think of telling anyone about this hideout, our voices will ring out in our head, and you will feel our wrath.' I could see the intensity in his eyes. It was the same intensity we all had.
'Now be off with you!' Horus shouted. He then ran upstairs and we haven't seen or heard from him until just now. We let this serve as a reminder to all our students that we take our lessons seriously and that failure will not be tolerated."

As Maximus was telling this story, Miguel slowly descended the stairwell and entered the basement. He stared down Horus for several moments. "I'm much more powerful now and I'm gonna beat you and get my respect back." He said. Miguel's eyes turned towards Tea. He began licking his lips, "OH hey there baby!" Miguel said. "Once I'm done here, I think you and I should go back to my place."
Tea gave Miguel a look of death. "Yeah Right! Like I'd be seen with a sorry excuse for a person like you." She said. Miguel became even angrier.
"You disrespect me like that?" He shouted, "Maybe I should teach you a little respect." As Miguel pulled out a dueling deck Yugi stepped in. "Why don't you pick on someone who can handle you."? Yugi said
Tea pulled Yugi back, "No Yugi." She said with a tone of confidence, "He means to have a war with me, and I aim to please."
Yugi pleaded with Tea "No!! You could get hurt if you duel him. Please let me do this."
"No Yugi." Tea said, "The gesture is appreciated but I have to learn to fight my own battles." Tea and Miguel approached the dueling platform and took their places. The projectors turned on and the two began shuffling their decks.

"Baby we ain't got to do this." Miguel said. "Just step down and let me go after Horus and his buddies, then we can have a romantic…"
"Let's just get this over with." Tea cut in. Their Life Point counters both set to 8000 and they drew their five cards.
"I'm gonna go first, Cause I'm better." Miguel said. "Ok I'll set these two cards face down and summon Homunculus the Alchemic Being." Homunculus was a strange creature. It had the body of a man but part of its body was red and part was black. It looked as if it was not fully solid. It had 1800 Attack Points

Tea drew her sixth card. "I'll set down one monster in Defense mode and this card face down. Let's see what you've got." She said

"You got it Chica!" Miguel arrogantly proclaimed as he drew. "I'll set down one more card, and I'll set this monster in Defense Mode. Now Homunculus will attack your face down card."
"Not so fast hot shot!" Tea said. I'll activate the trap Compulsory Evacuation Device and return your monster to your hand." A large launching mechanism grabbed Homunculus and loaded it into a feeding tube. The tube then pointed at Miguel's hand and fired his monster back at it, returning the card to his hand.
"Not bad, But let's see what you can do now." Miguel said
Tea drew her next card. "OK First I play Heavy Storm and destroy all your face down cards." Her card activated and a massive windstorm began to swirl around the arena forcing both Tea and Miguel to shield their eyes. Miguel's face down Magic and Traps were all destroyed.
"I'll activate this now while I still can. Go Scapegoat!" Miguel said and 4 small fluffy sheep appeared on his field. Tea smiled with delight at the sight of the sheep.
"I never was one to butcher an innocent sheep, but in this case I'll make an exception." Tea said. "I'll sacrifice my monster Kelbeck to summon Airknight Parshath." Her mechanical looking fairy disappeared and was replaced by Airknight Parshath, A monster with the head and torso of a man, but the body and legs of a horse. His Armor gleamed with light and so did his sword. He had 1900 Attack points.

"Airknight, attack a sheep!" Tea ordered. Her knight stood up on its hind legs and prepared its sword. He charged forward and skewered a sheep with his sword. Then ran back to its position. Miguel seemed unphased by the attack, until he saw his Life Points drop to 6100.
"By my sheep are in Defense mode" he said, "What's up with that?"
"My Airkinght has the ability to run through defense position monsters and hit your Life Points anyway." Tea proclaimed. "And that's not all, every time he does damage to a player I get to draw a card." Tea drew an extra card. "I'll end my turn by setting one card face down." She said

"Hey, Tea's holding up pretty good against this guy." Joey said, "Get em' Tea!" He cheered
Yugi's face looked very concerned. He didn't say anything though because he didn't want to break Tea's concentration.
Meanwhile Miguel drew. "I'll flip up my face down monster, Cyber Jar." He said, His monster, Cyber Jar, appeared. It was a small metallic looking space pod. Its hatch opened up and proceeded to suck up every monster on the field. Once they were all absorbed, the pod self-destructed.
"You know the drill, show your top 5 cards." Miguel said. He drew into, the magic card Lightning Vortex, the trap, Raigeki Break, and the monsters, Tribe Infecting Virus, DD Warrior Lady, and Chaos Sorcerer. Tea drew into the magic card, Terraforming, and the monsters Kaiser Seahorse, Zolga, Kelbeck, and the second monster Horus showed her, Guardian Angel Joan. Tea summoned her Seahorse, Zolga and Kelbeck to the field while Miguel summoned his DD Warrior Lady and Tribe to the field.

"Now you see just how much power I really have." Miguel arrogantly proclaimed. "First I'll use Tribe Infecting Virus's ability. By discarding a card from my hand I can destroy all of one type of monster on the field. So I discard Homunculus and destroy all Fairies." At this, Tribe Infecting Virus, which was a cluster of germs that manifested into a bodily form, spread forth and coated Tea's Kelbeck, and Zolga. They both began to choke and gag from the virus and finally shattered. The Virus then reformed on Miguel's side of the field. He began to laugh.
"And now for the real treat. I remove from my graveyard, Cyber Jar and Homunculus in order to summon forth the Chaos Sorcerer!"
A portal opened up on Miguel's field. It led into a void that was partially bright with light and black as midnight. Out of this portal stepped a wizard wearing black armored robes. One of his hands held a ball of light and the other held a ball of darkness. This was Chaos Sorcerer.

As the portal was opening, Shinobi came into the basement. He arrived just in time to see the wizard emerge.
"Chaos!" he said softly. "So Miguel has joined the Hunters." His face showed a look of disdain and contempt as se silently joined his fellow Saints at the base of the platform along side Joey and Yugi.

"Attack her Sea Horse Sorcerer!!" Miguel ordered. His sorcerer waived his arms and shot two beams, one white and one black at Tea's monster. It was destroyed and shattered to pieces. Tea lost 600 Life Points.
"Now I attack directly with my Virus." Miguel added and the virus fired a cloud of vapor directly at Tea, stripping her of another 1600 Life Points. "And now my DD Warrior Lady will attack." Miguel said. DD Warrior lady was a blonde haired woman, wearing black leather armor that looked like it was from the future. She also had a bright short sword that glowed as she swung it at Tea. Tea lost another 1500 Life points from this attack and she was down to 4300. Tea writhed from the hits of all three attacks.
"TEA!!!" Yugi screamed as he tried to climb the platform to join Tea, but Horus grabbed him and pulled him away.

"Let it Go man!" Horus shouted as he pulled Yugi away. "This is her fight!"
Tea slowly recovered and drew. "I play Pot of Greed and draw 2 more cards." She said, "Next I'll set one card face down and activate Call of the Haunted to bring back Kaiser Sea Horse." A tombstone appeared on Tea's field and began emitting mist. Out of the mist emerged her previously destroyed Kaiser Sea Horse. It was a Sea Serpent like creature with legs and a long metal spear for a weapon. Its attack power of 1700 could take out either Miguel's Warrior or Virus, but not the Sorcerer who had 2300 points.
"Next I'll sacrifice my Sea Horse, and use it's ability to treat it as 2 monsters to summon a creature of light called Moisture Creature!" Tea's monster faded out and was replaces by a large creature that was made seemingly entirely out of water vapor. Its eyes glowed a bright red-orange color. In one hand it held an umbrella and in the other, a laser pistol. At 2800 attack points, it could take out any of Miguel's monsters.

"Your Warrior Lady only has 1500 Attack points so Moisture Creature, blast her with Vapor Cannon." Tea gave the command and her monster fired its laser at Miguel's DD Warrior Lady. His Life Points dropped to 4800, but his monster was not destroyed. Instead another portal opened up in the center of the field.
"I'll activate my Warrior Lady's Special Ability." Miguel said, "Since she's being attacked I can if I want remove from play both her and the monster that she did battle with." Miguel's warrior and Tea's Moisture Creature were both sucked into the portal, disappearing from sight. The portal then closed and both monsters were gone.

Yugi became full of despair. Tea's last monster was now gone and Miguel could win on his next attack. "NOOOOO!!! TEA!!" He shouted, Horus and Maximus escorted Yugi away from the platform and tried to calm him down.
"Yugi," Horus said rather calmly, "I realize that this hurts for you to witness, but please let Tea handle this. I have a feeling she'll be ok."
"But she's my friend and I can't let something bad happen to her like this." Yugi pleaded
"We know that, but she wants to be able to fight her own battles and take care of herself." Maximus said

Meanwhile Tea ended her turn. Miguel drew to start his turn. As he looked at his card he began licking his lips again. "Oh yeah baby!! This one's over and we're gonna have fun tonight." He said. "I sacrifice my Tribe and summon Ice Emperor Mobius." Miguel's virus dissolved away and was replaced by a large pool of deep blue water on the arena floor. Out of this pool emerged Mobius, the Ice Emperor, a being wearing what looked like sheets of ice as a suit of armor. He pounded his two icy fists together and fired a lance made of ice at Tea's last remaining face down card.
"Mobius's special ability lets him destroy up to two Magic or Trap cards when he's tribute summoned." Miguel said, "So once that card is gone, you too will be gone."

"I don't think so buddy." Tea said. "I can still activate this card since Mobius was summoned. Torrential Tribute!!" Tea's card activate and a massive tidal wave splashed down on the field washing away both of Miguel's monsters. Then a whirlpool formed in the center of the field as if it were a bathtub drain and all of the water drained out of the arena. Miguel was not happy about this.
"It's ok." He said. "I can wait a turn to win. I'll pay 800 Life and use Premature Burial to bring back Chaos Sorcerer." As his life points dropped to 4000 the ground quaked and cracked and Miguel's Sorcerer emerged from underneath. "Now I'll have him attack!" Miguel's Sorcerer delivered another white and black energy blast directly at Tea. She lost another 2300 Life Points, leaving her only with 2000 Life Points remaining.
"I end my turn." Miguel said "Yo! I got you beat."

"My move." Tea said as she drew. "First I'll play Terraforming." She said 'This card lets me search my deck for any field Magic Card and put it in my hand. I'll get this one. The Sanctuary in the Sky. Now I shall activate it!!" As tea activated the card, the ground quaked again and this time a large white marble palace emerged from the floor and began to float about 12 feet over the entire dueling platform.

"With this Sanctuary in place, all Fairy monsters are safe." Tea said. "If they do battle at all, the controller of the Fairy will not lose any Life Points regardless of the outcome. Not to use it. I'll play a Premature Burial of my own and restore Kaiser Seahorse." Tea's Life Points decreased to 1200 and just as with Miguel's Sorcerer Tea's Seahorse reappeared.
"Now I'll sacrifice it again and count it as two tributes to summon out Guardian Angel Joan." Once again, Tea's seahorse faded away. This time a beam of light shone up from the floor and into the floating palace. Inside the beam emerged a beautiful maiden wearing celestial robes and had clear, lightweight wings. This was Guardian Angel Joan, and she had an attack power of 2800.
"Joan, Attack his Sorcerer with Sacred Light Beam." Tea shouted and her angel balled her hands together and fired a stream of light at Miguel's Sorcerer. The sorcerer tried with all his powers to stop the beam but it was no use, he was destroyed and Miguel lost 500 Life Points drooping him to 3500. Then the shattered pieces of Chaos Sorcerer were absorbed by Tea's Angel. She converted the pieces into a beam of light and fired it at Tea. Tea felt warmth flow through her body as he Life Points jumped from 1200 to 3500.

"I guess you know by now." Tea began, "Anytime Guardian Angel Joan destroys a monster, that monster's attack points get added to my Life Points. Looks like I'm back in the duel. Go ahead, let's see what you've got."
Miguel was getting angrier "Arrrrrrgh, I'm gonna get you for this one." He said
"I set one monster face down and end my turn."
Tea drew; she looked over her cards and realized that she can now turn the tables on Miguel. I'll summon Warrior of Zera to the field." She said. This warrior was dressed in a green chest protector, with a green spiked helmet and green gauntlets on his arms. He had a red scarf and blue war pants on. His sword had on the hilt a picture of a skull and spikes on the end. He had 1600 attack and defense points. Tea thought about attacking but decided to wait one more turn. "Go" she said

Miguel began his turn. "I'll set another monster face down and end my turn he said." He tried to remain calm but inside he was getting angry.
Tea drew her card. It was My body as a Shield, the card Horus used to stop Kaiba's Crush Card. She quickly set it on the field. "Joan attack the monster on the right." Tea Said. Joan fired a beam of light at Miguel's monster. It flipped face up and was shown as a small, undead looking skeleton with a Grim Reaper Scythe in his hand. It only had 200 Defense points but it was not destroyed. Miguel laughed.
"Hahaha! Don't you know that Spirit reaper can't be destroyed in battle?" he half-jokingly asked
"It's ok, Zera, attack the other face down monster." Tea ordered. Warrior of Zera raised his sword and lunged at the other face down monster. It flipped face up to reveal another Spirit Reaper. Zera's sword bounced right off of the thing.
"Ok Miguel, I'll end my turn." Tea said

"My move then." Miguel said as he drew his card. "Oh that's just beautiful," he said
"but not as beautiful as you my little lady. I play Lightning Vortex, by discarding a card from my hand, I destroy all your face up monsters." A stream of lightning bolts began raining down from the sky aimed at Tea's monsters.
"Sorry Miguel." Tea cut in "I'll counter by using My Body as a Shield." As Tea activated this card, her life points dropped to 2000 and a surge ran through her body, causing her to scream in pain. Then a burst of energy emerged on the field and drew all the lightning bolts towards it. Once the bolts were absorbed, the energy exploded.
"That may have cost 1500 Life Points but it was worth it to protect my monsters." Tea said. Horus saw Tea make this move and he was very thrilled to see her use a card that he loved so dearly.

Miguel was upset at this. "You little stinker. I'll make you pay for this." He said. "I set one monster face down and activate book of Taiyou on it to turn it face up." His magic card created a magic book over top of his face down monster. The book released a bright light, like sunlight towards the face down monster flipping it face up. The monster was revealed to be Morphing Jar, a small stone jar with an eye in the center of the inside of the jar.
"Drop your hand and draw 5 new cards." Miguel said Tea did so, but in doing so she discarded a card called Outstanding Dog Marron, which when sent to the graveyard by any means, gets reshuffled back into the deck. "Now to slow you down, I set two cards face down and activate the Dark Door. Now you will only be able to attack once."

"I draw." Tea said
"And I activate Drop-Off!" Miguel interrupted "Tea paused for a moment, then calmly discarded her card, Good Goblin Housekeeping to the Graveyard. Tea resumed her turn
"I now play Graceful Charity, allowing me to draw three cards" she drew her cards. One of them was the card Horus showed her a week earlier, Archlord Zerato. "Now I discard Keldo and Zolga from my hand. OK Miguel, I hope you're ready, cause here it comes. I play Mystical Space Typhoon on your face down card." Tea's card activated and a swirling storm enveloped Miguel's face down card, Mirror Force.

"Big Deal." Miguel said "You can still only attack once and my Spirit Reapers and indestructible."
"One attack is all I need!" Tea said "Watch and learn. I sacrifice Warrior of Zera to the Sanctuary in the Sky in order to summon, Archlord Zerato!" Tea's warrior was pulled into the floating palace by a beam of light, and when he arrived his armor changed from green to silvery-white. His sword lost its spikes and skulls and formed into the shape of a Cross. He also grew larger and more muscular and sprouted wings from his back. Zerato's attack Strength jumped from 1600 to 2800. "Now I activate Zerato's Special Ability, by discarding one Light monster from my hand and destroy all your monsters!" Tea released Outstanding Dog Marron once again from her hand. As she reshuffled it into her deck, Zerato pointed his sword towards the sky. It became charged with lightning. He then pointed the sword at Miguel's monsters and at lightning shot from the tip of the sword, shocking all three of his monsters into oblivion.

"No! This can't be! Not Again!!" Miguel said
As Tea began her next move she looked over her shoulder at Horus. "Horus, this one's for you." She said to him
"You're doing great up there." Horus replied back. Then Tea resumed her turn. "Now you have two cards left and I don't trust them so I'll pay 1000 Life points to play Delinquent Duo." Two mischievous little demons flew at Miguel and snatched the two cards he was holding, Blade Knight and a second Chaos Sorcerer and threw them in the graveyard. "Now to finish this, I play Gift of the Martyr!!" Tea shouted. At this Guardian Angel Joan extended her hand towards Zerato. A beam of light flowed out of her hand and into Zerato, as Joan slowly faded from sight. Meanwhile Zerato's attack power jumped to 5600.

"Gift of the Martyr allows me to sacrifice one of my monsters and transfer its attack strength to another for one turn." Tea said, "So now Zerato has enough power to take you out. Sword of the Heavens!!!" At this command Archlord Zerato fired a stream of blue lightning directly at Miguel. It connected and sent Miguel flying clear off of the platform. His Life Points fell to 0.

"Yeah!!! Awesome dueling Tea!!" Joe shouted, "You creamed this guy!!" Yugi, Joey, Horus, Maximus and Shinobi all ran over to Tea as she descended the platform to greet her. They all gave her congratulatory high-fives for her job well done.
"Tea, that was beautiful!" Horus said, 'and you used the cards I showed you!! Even better!!"
"I bet that felt good to pound that creep into the dirt like that!" Maximus said
Tea was choked up with tears of joy. "Thanks guys," she said, fighting back a tear "This felt really good. I got to stand up for myself."
"I'm so glad you're not hurt." Yugi said "I was so worried about you up there."
"Don't be scared Yugi." Tea said, "I can take care of myself."

Meanwhile Miguel slowly climbed to his feet. The blast from Zerato blew him all the way to the basement floor. As he staggered to his feet Horus looked over and saw him rise. "Hold on a minute. We need to take out the trash." Horus said as he, Maximus and Shinobi all walked up to him.

"You still haven't learned Miguel." Horus said, "We tried to teach you and we failed. You came back seeking vengeance and all you found was more humiliation. If ever you return to this establishment, you shall regret the day you were born. Maximus, grab his deck!!!" Maximus quickly climbed up the platform and gathered up all of Miguel's cards.
"We'll hang on to this." Horus said "I don't think you'll need it anymore." Horus then raised his gauntlet in Miguel's face and his eyes glowed a bright red. "NOW BE OFF WITH YOU!!!" Horus shouted, Miguel, as if not in control of his own body, silently made his way towards the stairs leading upstairs. At the top of the stairs, he regained control of himself, turned around and spoke.

"You may have stopped me." Miguel shouted, "But you cannot stop what lies ahead. The dawning of a new era is upon you. The age of Chaos has begun!" Miguel then ran out the front doors and out of Game Sanctuary.

"Age of Chaos? What does he mean by that?" Yugi asked
"He's one of them now." Shinobi responded, "He's a Hunter now."