Seeker's plan had crumbled. At first he had everything under control, but now he was at a severe loss. Yugi had three monsters on the field, each with at least 2,000 attack points, while he had only two monsters that wouldn't be able to protect him for long. How could I have let this happen? I had the perfect strategy! No, I can't let Yugi win. My master will never forgive me! "Yugi, I won't lose!"
"It's too late, Seeker. I have the advantage and I don't intend to lose it again."
Seeker motioned to his fellow Rare Hunters behind him. The one with the remote for the winch in his hand nodded and held it up for everybody in the room to see.
"If you attack me, the girl will be dropped into the tank. How do you feel about your 'advantage' now, little Yugi?" Seeker snigeled heartily before dropping to one knee to cough loudly. I've got him now, master. His Puzzle and rare card will be ours in no time.
"Don't risk it, Yugi!" Tea cried out.
"Dude, you can't! He'll kill her!" Tristan shouted.
Joey remained silent. He couldn't imagine the pressure of such a decision that his friend was faced with making. He wanted to let Yugi do this on his own.
What do I do now? If I attack, he'll drop Susan into the tank…but if I don't, he'll win and drop her in anyway. Yugi shook his head, conflicted and frustrated. "Why don't you leave the girl alone and finish this duel with honor, Rare Hunter? Or are you afraid?"
Seeker snigeled again. "I don't care about honor, you fool. I just want your Dark Magician card, and I'll do whatever it takes to get it! So what do you say?"
Yugi tried not to look at Jacob and Scott still stuck in the net, but that was exactly what he needed to do. It was barely there, but he could see the faint smile on Jacob's face, giving him permission to go on. Yugi narrowed his eyes, unsure, and trying to get confirmation. Trying to keep his arm hidden, Jacob managed to give Yugi the thumbs up gesture. He might have a plan if he's allowing me to continue the duel.
It's still risky. Who knows what that Rare Hunter is really thinking, Yugi protested.
We'll just have to trust him, Yugi. I don't think he would risk his sister's life, thought the pharaoh.
I guess you're right. Just be careful, Yami.
"I say…Beast of Gilfer, attack his Stone Statue!"
The fiend lowered its head, ramming its horn into the statue and crumbling it effortlessly.
Seeker guffawed loudly. "I didn't think you cared so little about your friend's life, Yugi! Now, watch her die because of your selfishness!" He snapped his fingers.
The floorboards creaked below the small crane holding Susan as the winch activated and began lowering her. Suddenly, it stopped. Jacob and Scott halted their struggling, wondering the same thing as everybody else.
The Rare Hunter holding the remote vigorously pressed the button, but to no avail. "What the hell is wrong with this thing?"
From the rafters, two objects shot out in a flash of silver, stabbing into the hands of the Rare Hunter. He dropped the remote, screaming out. There was another flash of silver, and a pocket-sized blade was lodged in the back of his throat, his tongue sliced right down the middle. The other Rare Hunters watched in horror as he spat out blood, falling in a heap to the floor.
The lights went out.
Several quick slashing noises could be heard, followed by an equal amount of thuds on the floor.
When the lights came back on, every Rare Hunter except for Seeker was lying in a pool of their own blood on the old floor. Many jaws were hanging open as everyone observed the room that was now filled with dead bodies, their eyes eventually winding up on a row of four individuals standing between Seeker and his monsters. They were dressed in what appeared to be black ninja garments, with a mask covering their faces, save for their eyes. They were all about the same height; the only thing differentiating them was their belt colors – magenta, teal, green, and yellow.
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Staring at a wall of monitors in discomposure, an olive-skinned man with feathered white hair down to his shoulders stabbed his golden scepter into the right armrest of his chair.
"Who the hell are they? Odion!"
A man of much darker complexion dressed in the same purple robe entered the room and knelt down beside the chair.
"Yes, master?"
"Tell Kai to find out who those four fools are at once. They're interfering with my plan!"
"As you wish, master."
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"Eh, someone wanna tell me why we're surrounded by dead bodies, and why there are four ninjas over there?" asked Joey, trembling at the fact that he was surrounded by death. "This is seriously not cool."
Jericho grabbed his phone, snapping pictures of the four individuals.
"I don't think this is such a good time for pictures, dude," Tristan interjected, nudging his friend's arm.
"My phone is going to search similar images on the internet and hopefully we'll find out who these guys are in a few moments," Jericho responded.
Finally, the ninja with the magenta-colored belt spoke. Surprisingly, it was a female's voice. "Seeker, it's over. You're not going to bully anybody else."
Seeker was almost at a loss for words. He'd never encountered such strange people, and he wasn't exactly normal himself. He straightened himself out and cleared his throat. "What are you doing? Who are you?"
"We are ending your reign of terror, and preventing you from harming anyone in the future. Hand over the Red-Eyes Black Dragon to Yugi Moto."
"Oh, is that what this is about? Wheeler's card?" He was no longer afraid of them – at least, not as afraid as he was. They were probably just more friends of Joey's. "So, Wheeler, you had a backup plan in case Yugi failed, did you?"
Joey held up his hands. "I have no idea who these guys are, man. They're no friends of mine."
Seeker grinned and took a card from his pocket. It was the Red-Eyes Black Dragon he'd taken from Joey. "I won this card fair and square. There's nothing you can do about that."
The one in the yellow belt lunged at the old man, quickly relieving him of the card before he could react. As he turned his head to look at his empty hand, the green belt swept him from his feet, knocking him to the ground.
Yugi cried out, "What do you think you're doing? Stop this madness immediately!"
The teal belt lifted Seeker to his feet, beaming at Yugi as she did so. Her eyes were an intense shade of blue. "Madness?" She scoffed as she turned and dragged the man toward the tank.
Jacob and Scott had managed to free themselves through all of the chaos, backing away from her. They weren't pushovers, especially Scott since he was on the football team, but they saw what she was capable of, and wanted no part of that.
She hoisted the old scumbag onto the metal rim of the tank. "No, this is chaotic justice."
"W-w-what are you doing?" Seeker said, wriggling around on the edge of the tank, watching as the shark fins maneuvered around in the murky water.
"She's gonna push him in!" Tristan shouted.
"Stop! Don't do it!" Yugi yelled to her.
Joey opened his mouth to speak, but his Red-Eyes card hit him in the chest, grabbing his attention. He held it in his hands, admiring it for a moment before he remembered what was happening in front of him.
"W-wait, we can talk about this! You don't have to do this! How about some cards? You can go through my entire collection – choose any cards you like!" Seeker pleaded. His nose was so close to the water that he could smell the salt.
"No. Any other desperate attempts to bargain for your worthless life?" The girl was cold in her tone, indifferent to the fact that she was about to send a man to his death.
"Um, what about—"
She shoved him in without hesitance, turning away.
Yugi and his friends cried out in shock and protest, beginning to run to the tank before realizing there was nothing they could do for him. His agonizing screams subsided within a few seconds as the sharks went straight to work on him, thrashing about, causing the tank to wobble, water splashing onto the floor around it. The floorboards creaked below.
The teal belt returned to her place next to the other girls.
"How could you?" Yugi cried, seething through gritted teeth. He'd returned to his normal short stature, his voice higher again. "Tell me!"
"He deserved it," said the green belt bluntly.
"Nobody deserves death!"
"That's wishful thinking at its worst," the teal belt said. Her expression hadn't changed one bit since she'd dropped the man into the tank.
The floor groaned beneath them, at first subtly, but then it grew into a large bellow. It was about to collapse from the shifting weight of the shark tank. Susan was still dangling above the tank, the small crane connected to it; if it went, the crane and Susan went, too.
Realizing this, Jacob rushed to the crane, trying to find a control stick to move his sister out of the way before it was too late. Scott scrambled for the remote that the Rare Hunter had dropped, removing it from its pool of red liquid.
"How do you work this thing?" Jacob yelled in confusion, fumbling with the switches and levers. Scott moved over to him, also puzzled by the mechanism.
Without warning, the floor beneath Scott caved in, dropping him. He'd have fallen dozens of feet into the ocean below the building had it not been for Jacob's quick reflexes. The football player grabbed his friend's other hand, trying to get himself back up. The floor creaked again, and this time the boards beneath Jacob gave way. Both boys dropped into the hole, but then stopped.
The magenta belt had grabbed Jacob's foot, her other arm hooked around the crane's base. She groaned as the two boys swung gently in the hole above the ocean's surface. Each movement from them caused more strain on her arm. Simply holding them from falling was a laborious task on its own, seeing as Jacob was about 130 pounds and Scott was nearing the 215 pound mark; almost 350 pounds on one arm was tearing her muscles apart.
Joey and Tea began running to help, but the floor moaned with each step.
"Don't move!" Jericho ordered.
"But we have to help her!" Joey said defiantly. He faced the other three girls. "Hey, that's your friend! You're supposed to be helping her!"
After he finished his sentence, Tea's feet fell through the floor. Yugi and Joey dove for her, stopping her at the waist. Water splashed next to them, reminding them of the tank. The sharks were restless. They'd had their appetizer, and now they wanted the main course. They bumped against the glass walls ferociously, their long tails throwing more water at the group. It was still only a matter of time before the tank dropped, bringing Susan with it, or the sharks broke free.
As if things couldn't get any worse, the floor began cracking apart through the middle of the room. The gap began as only an inch or so wide, but it soon evolved into at least a foot. The far half of the room was ready to fall straight into the ocean; its rotten support beams must've cracked under the weight of the tank.
Damn, it looks like I'm gonna have to save everyone, Jericho thought as he took a deep breath. He released it, taking a step toward Yugi and immediately crashing through the floor.
He looked up, seeing his forearms in the green belt's grasp. "T-thank you, I think?"
With a grunt, she pulled him out of the hole and pushed him toward the door. "Get to the door and open it. We'll get your friends." She looked at Tristan. "What are you standing around for? Help him with the door!"
She hastily hopped into the air, landing on her tip toes a few feet away, then taking off again. She made it to Yugi and Joey, helping them pull Tea out, who promptly thanked her.
"Omi needs us," said the yellow belt, treading lightly but swiftly toward her friend, who was struggling to keep both boys from falling to their deaths.
The teal belt poised herself to join, but a bizarre feeling crept down her spine. She turned her head, eyeing the rest of the room. She stopped searching as she found a man in a black robe halfway hidden in the farthest corner of the room, near what looked like another door. Although his face was concealed in the shadows, she could somehow tell he was staring right back at her.
"Kalika!"
Her eyelids closed and reopened. She regained her state of mind, dashing forward, dodging several more holes in the floor that had opened up as she moved. The floor looked like a mangled slice of Swiss cheese by the time she reached her friends, and it was only getting worse by the second. The large divide in the room that had formed earlier had opened up wide enough so that the beginning of the tank was hanging over the edge.
With the three of them pulling, the two boys were raised in no time. Jacob wasted no time returning to the crane's console. When it became apparent he was never going to figure it out, the yellow belt stepped in, pressing select buttons and moving the joystick to the side. The crane whirred and moved away from the tank, lowering enough for Jacob and Scott to untie Susan.
Jacob and Susan embraced tightly.
"There's no time for that!" shouted the magenta belt, interrupting their reunion. "Get to the *****ing door!"
Jacob, Susan, Scott, and the three females raced to the door, each step carrying with it the risk of falling straight through the floor and into the unsafe depths below. The crack was now gigantic and, in Titanic fashion, the back half of the room split off from the front half, falling into the ocean. The tidal wave it created rose up, slamming down on the humans. Jericho, Tristan, Joey, Tea, and Yugi were all thrust through the door as the water forced them forward. Behind them, Jacob and the rest weren't so lucky. The wave hit with so much force that it shattered the floor even worse than it had been before. There was hardly any floor left to tread on as the wave receded.
"We're not gonna make it before this place collapses entirely!" Susan whined. She could feel the floor cracking under her feet as she moved.
"Like hell we're not!" Scott grunted, picking up the fragile girl and tossing her with all of his might straight into the open doorway, where the green belt caught her.
"Nice one, man!" Jacob complimented.
The floor gave way completely just as the yellow belt made it to the doorway, falling into the corridor with the others.