Author's Note: I wasn't really sure if I'd get this chapter up today. For one thing, I had someplace I had to be this afternoon for about an hour. Plus the duel that's about to take place in this chapter made it a pretty long one. But I managed to get a fairly early start on writing it this morning, so here we are. I hope this makes up for the last chapter.
Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! ZEXAL.
Chapter 11: Tower Siege
Hikari and the others passed through the hatch and ended up in a small room inside the tower. Gilag ended up having to throw Orbital up through the opening due to the robot's inability to climb. Once everyone was through, Hikari opened the door and they found themselves inside a long hallway on the first floor. The walls were covered with the same glowing crystal that was in the sewers. There were no vampires in sight inside that hall, but they all knew there was a good chance that could change at any time.
"Well, we're in. Now what?" Shark asked.
"Now we go to the lab so I can shut down the portal." Hikari answered.
"What about Kotori?" Yuma asked. "She's probably being held here somewhere?"
"Or more likely, she's probably a vampire." Durbe pointed out.
"Then again, she might not be. It could be that Kaito simply locked her in a room somewhere to use her as bait." Alit pointed out.
"Okay, fine. Hikari and I will go to the lab alone to shut down that portal." Shark decided. "The rest of you can search the tower for Kotori, but be careful. Durbe, I'm counting on you to keep a leash on Yuma should you guys find the worst."
"You don't have to worry about a thing." Durbe assured him.
"Let's get moving!" Hikari told them. "We probably don't have a lot of time left."
With that, the group split up and Shark and Hikari headed for the lab. They walked as quickly as they could down the silent hallways, being careful not to alert any vampires that might be lurking around. In only a few moments they made it to the lab. But as soon as they walked in, they found Kaito and Droite standing in the middle of the room.
"We had a feeling you might show up." Kaito told them.
"So we decided to throw you a little welcome." Droite added.
"Damn! I knew this wouldn't be easy." Shark declared.
"This ends now!" Hikari told the vampire couple. "We're shutting you down."
"You're right about one thing. This is going to end now." Kaito replied. "But it'll be with your deaths!"
"The only way for you to end this now is to defeat us!" Droite informed them.
"Guess we don't have a choice." Hikari observed.
"Fine then! We'll take you both on!" Shark agreed.
"This'll be a tag match, with both our teams sharing a total of 8000 life points." Kaito informed them. "Now let's do this!"
With that, Hikari and Shark put on their D-Gazers while the D-Gazer tattoos of Droite and Kaito activated. As soon as the four of them activate their duel disks, the color of the surrounding space changed slightly.
"I'll go first." Kaito announced as he drew his first card. "I'll set one card on the field. Then I summon Photon Crusher in Attack Mode!" Kaito's one-eyed armored warrior materialized on the battlefield, swinging his club as he appeared. "That ends my turn."
"I'm up next!" Shark announced as he drew his first card. "First I'll set my own face-down card on the field! Then I summon Skull Kraken in Defense Mode!"
Appearing on the field was a grey octopus-like creature with long narrow tentacles. It had a skull-shaped head with a pair of sunken red eyes.
"I end my turn!" Shark announced.
"Now it's my move." Droite calmly announced as she drew her next card. "First I summon Morpho Butterspy in Attack Mode!"
Materializing next to Photon Crusher was a female creature with a humanoid upper body and a tail-like lower half. She had a large pair of blue and black butterfly wings and wore a blue and black bodysuit. A brown helmet with orange lenses covered the upper half of her face, and in each hand she carried a green blade.
"I overlay my Morpho Butterspy and Kaito's Photn Crusher to Xyz Summon Dead Star Butterfly Priestess!" Droite announced.
A vortex of purple light appeared in the center of the battlefield. Kaito and Droite's two monsters turned into balls of purple energy and were sucked in. Rising out of the center moments later was Droite's white-haired priestess.
"I'll set one card on the field and end my turn." Droite announced.
Hikari drew her first card. "First I summon Fortress Warrior in Defense Mode!"
Appearing on the battlefield was a large stone warrior with four legs and a humanoid upper body. With his arms it carried a round windowed structure with a helicopter landing-pad on the top.
"Next I activate the Spell card, Emergency Teleport!" Hikari announced. "With this card, I summon the Tuner monster, Psychic Commander!"
Materializing on the field in a flash of yellow light was a humanoid figure clad in a green army uniform with white gloves riding in a silver futuristic hovercraft with a long cannon barrel on the front. He had a grinning mouth filled with sharp fangs, and on his head was a helmet with a black visor showing four red eyes.
"I tune my level three Psychic Commander into my level two Fortress warrior and Ryoga's level three Skull Kraken for a level eight Synchro Summon!" Hikari announced.
Psychic Commander flashed orange and turned into three rings made of green light. The rings surrounded Skull Kraken and Fortress Warrior, changing them into eight white stars.
"Clustering nightmares will call forth the heart's inner demon! Create the path its darkness spreads upon!" Hikari chanted. "Synchro Summon! Arise from the pit, Thought Ruler Archfiend!"
The stars flashed and began a massive pillar of white light. The light faded to reveal a large humanoid demon with a muscular green body. He had a pair of large bat-like wings on his back and a long thick tail with yellow stripes. Parts of his body were covered by white bone, and his head was a skull with thick straight horns. The demon had large hands with long thick yellow claws.
"I know for a fact that your Dead Star monsters can only be destroyed in battle by a Synchro Monster." Hikari told Droite and Kaito. "Which means my deck is pure poison to you two! Thought Ruler Archfiend, attack Butterfly Priestess! Dark Mind Shocker!"
The demon growled and bolts of yellow lighting shot up from his claws to a point right above his head. A massive bolt of lightning shot from that point towards Butterfly Priestess.
"Not so fast! I activate a Trap, Dead Star Nova!" Kaito quickly announced. "When a Dead Star monster is attacked, this card destroys the attacking monster and inflicts damage equal to that monster's ATK!"
"As if I'd let that happen!" Shark cut in. "I activate my own Trap, Seven Tools of the Bandit! I pay 1000 of our life points to negate your trap and destroy it!"
Shark and Hikari's life points took a slight drop to 7000 and the large representation of Kaito's Trap shattered to bits. The attack of Hikari's psychic demon continued on and struck Butterfly Priestess, causing her to shatter to bits after being shocked. Kaito and Droite's life points dropped to 7700. At the same time, Hikari and Shark both glowed momentarily with a yellow-green aura.
"Thanks to Thought Ruler Archfiend's effect, Ryoga and I gain life points equal to Butterfly Priestess' ATK!" Hikari announced. "More than making up for the life points we had to pay for Seven Tools of the Bandit!"
"Maybe so, but your Archfiend still loses 1000 ATK due to the effect of Butterfly Priestess." Droite informed them.
On cue, the psychic demon began to glow with a feint purple aura. He fell to one knee as his ATK dropped to 1700.
"I set one card on the field and end my turn!" Hikari announced. "It's your move!"
Yuma and the others reached the second floor as they continued their desperate search for Kotori. They had checked every room they could find and get into and had found nothing but slumbering vampires. The longer the search went on, the more hopeless things seemed.
"Am I the only who thinks this whole thing is insane?" Cathy quietly asked the others.
"You're the only one who won't shut up about it!" Alit told her.
"Watch your tongue, Alit!" Mizael warned.
"Yeah Alit. You don't want to hurt little Cathy's feelings." Vector teased. "Otherwise Miza-Chan will get mad."
"The same goes for you, Vector!" Mizael warned.
"Will you guys cram it already?" Yuma cut in.
"Indeed. The noise you're all making might give away our position." Durbe agreed.
At last the group came to another door. Orbital opened it up and they went inside. What they found on the other side of the door was a large room filled with the white-haired ghoul vampires they had all come to know, and all of them were awake. Yuma and the others quickly ran out of the room as the vampires began to chase after them. Once they were all out of the room, Orbital slammed the door in the vampires' faces.
"This is pointless!" Mizael declared. "The only thing that's going to come from this search is all of us either getting killed or turned into those pitiful creatures!"
"But we have to find Kotori!" Yuma insisted.
"Yuma." A familiar voice spoke, causing Yuma and the others to turn.
Emerging from around the corner ahead was Kotori. She was barefoot and had on a simple low-cut white dress with a short skit and two thin straps. Her skin had become very pale yet very radiant. Right away Yuma noticed that the size of Kotori's bust had increased. Even two years after the battle with Don Thousand and the Barians, Kotori had been a bit flat chested, not that Yuma minded of course. But it seemed now that Kotori had finally developed.
"I heard you've been looking for me." Kotori spoke with a seductive look as she sauntered over.
"She's a vampire now, isn't she." Cathy quickly deduced.
"Oh yeah." Vector confirmed.
"I know you want me, Yuma." Kotori continued. "So why not just join with me?"
"Kotori, I…" a blushing Yuma spoke.
"I'll join with you Kotori!" Alit eagerly offered.
At this, Gilag struck Yuma and Alit on the back of the head, knocking them out cold. The muscular ex-Barian quickly picked up Alit while Mizael and Vector grabbed Yuma.
"Sorry, but I don't think any of us will be joining you." Durbe told the green-haired vampire.
Kotori hissed as the group and bared her fangs. As soon as she lunged at them, Orbital moved in the way and expanded to his aggressive-looking battle mode. The robot knocked Kotori away with one of his arms. Kotori quickly recovered and hissed at Orbital.
"I'll h-h-hold her off!" Orbtial told the others. "You guys just g-get out of here!"
The others nodded and quickly ran off, still carrying Yuma and Alit. With nowhere else to go, the group quickly headed for the lab to rejoin Shark and Hikari.
"I can't believe those two!" Cathy exclaimed. "Kotori gets a bigger chest from becoming a vampire and they become putty in her hands!"
"Some guys just can't control their baser instincts, I guess." Durbe replied.
"Mizael, you don't think I need a boob job, do you?" Cathy asked.
"Of course not, kitten. You're beautiful just the way you are." Mizael assured her.
Vector burst out laughing. "Kitten? Really?"
"Be silent Vector, or I'll strangle you with your own tongue!" Mizael warned.
"Hey Durbe, I think I'm starting to see why Mizael kept his thing with Cathy a secret." Gilag observed.
"Indeed." Durbe replied.
Kaito drew his next card. "I summon Galaxy-Eyes Cloud Dragon in Attack Mode!"
Appearing on Kaito's side of the field was a small blue swirling nebular cloud. Emerging from the cloud like a chick hatching from an egg was a small blue glowing dragon that looked like an infant version of Photon Dragon.
"And now, by sacrificing Cloud Dragon, I can bring forth a creature more powerful than a super nova!" Kaito announced. "Appear, Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"
Cloud Dragon roared and his body exploded with a blinding flash of blue light. The light faded after a moment to reveal Photon Dragon standing on the battlefield.
"I activate my Trap, Shadow Mirror Butterfly!" Droite announced. "By targeting one monster on my side of the field, I can summon this card as a monster with the same level! And the monster I choose is Galaxy-Eyes Photon Dragon!"
Flying out of Droite's Trap card was a large butterfly with shining purple wings. As soon as the insect landed on the field, four black dots appeared on the upper part of each of its wings.
"I overlay Photon Dragon and the level eight Shadow Mirror Butterfly to Xyz Summon the ultimate harbinger of extinction!" Kaito announced. "Arise, Galaxy-Eyes Dead Star Dragon!"
A purple vortex appeared in the center of the field and both monsters were pulled in as purple balls of energy. Bursting out of the vortex a moment later with a roar was Kaito's undead dragon of light.
"Because Droite's Butterfly Priestess is in the Graveyard, Dead Star Dragon's ATK rises to 3500." Kaito continued. "Dead Star, obliterate Thought Ruler Archfiend! Dead Star Stream of Extinction!"
Dead Star Dragon reared back its head and blasted the psychic demon with a stream of light from its jaws. Thought Ruler Archfiend was vaporized in an instant and Shark and Hikari's life points dropped to 7600.
"I'll end my turn there." Kaito announced.
"Get ready to kiss that dragon of yours goodbye!" Shark spoke as he drew his next card. "First I summon Big Jaws in Attack Mode!"
Appearing on the battlefield was a large blue and white shark with a mouth filled with oversized fangs. On top of its head was a single fin-shaped blade.
"Because I summoned a Water monster to the field, I can also summon Shark Stickers!" Shark continued. A large slender blue fish with suction cups on the top of its head appeared next to Big Jaws. "I overlay the level three Big Jaws and the level three Shark Stickers to Xyz Summon Black Ray Lancer!"
The two fish monsters turned into balls of blue energy and were sucked into a vortex that appeared on the field. Rising out moments later was a creature covered in black scale-like armor. It had a humanoid upper body with a head covered completely by a purple helmet. On his back was a pair of large blue fins like those of a fish. The creature had a slender midsection, and on its waist was another large pair of blue fins where legs would normally be. In its right hand, the creature carried a long red spear.
"What do you expect to do with that monster?" Kaito asked. "Its effect may be able to negate Dead Star Dragon's, but its 2100 ATK is no match for it."
"I'm not done yet! Next I activate the Spell, Rank-Up-Magic Barian's Force!" Shark announced. "Using Black Ray Lancer, I rebuild the overlay network and summon a Chaos Xyz Monster!"
Appearing in the air above the battlefield was a strange black vortex surrounded by a green mist-like energy. Black Ray Lancer was pulled into the phenomenon and vanished.
"Say hello to CXyz Shadow Ray Lancer!" Shark announced.
Black Ray Lancer emerged from the black anomaly moments later in a different form. His purple helmet had turned red and had gained three gold fin-like blades on the top. The once blue fins on his back and wait had turned red, and on his chest was a large golden version of the Barian emblem. Two lines of sparkling red energy trailed down the monster's midsection, and in his right hand he carried a large golden spear with a line of red energy along the shaft. Three red cross-shaped crystals with golden panels appeared on the ground around Shadow Ray Lancer.
"You know what happens next, Kaito!" Shark continued. "Barian's Force takes your dragon's overlay units and removes its invulnerability to non-Synchro Monsters! And for each overlay unit it loses, Dead Star Dragon's ATK drops by 300 points!"
A stream of red energy flowed from the glowing dragon to Shadow Ray Lancer, pulling the two balls of purple light that orbited the dragon along with it. The balls of light changed into two more red crystals that settled on the ground around the lancer.
"Not bad." Kaito admitted. "But your new monster still only has 2600 ATK. Even though Dead Star Dragon's been weakened by Barian's Force, Shadow Ray Lancer's still no match for it."
"I attack Dead Star Dragon with Shadow Ray Lancer and activate Shadow Ray Lancer's effect!" Shark announced. "By detaching one chaos overlay unit, Shadow Ray Lancer gains the ATK of that monster during the battle!"
Shadow Ray Lancer raised his spear and took aim at Dead Star Dragon. One of the red crystals on the ground shattered and turned into particles of light that entered the shaft of the spear.
"Ultimate Harpoon!" Shark called out.
Shadow Ray Lancer threw his golden spear at Dead Star Dragon. As the spear flew through the air it glowed with a red light and grew in size. The spear came down and struck Dead Star Dragon in the chest, causing it to explode in a blinding flash of purple light. Kaito and Droite's life points dropped to 5100. A moment later, Shadow Ray Lancer's spear reappeared in his hand.
"There's no way I'm going to let the two of you win this battle!" Shark declared. "I'll fight you both to the end to keep this world from falling into your hands!"
"Interesting talk from someone who once tried to destroy this world himself for the sake of his people." Kaito remarked. "What I'm doing now is no different from what you did as Nasch."
"Like that makes what you're doing any more right!" Shark shot back. "I was an idiot back then! Sure I was fighting for my fellow Barians, but the way I did it was completely wrong. The lives of those I cared about weren't worth the lives of the people of Earth and Astral World, or my friendship with Yuma! Let me ask you something, Kaito. Was joining with Droite worth betraying me, Yuma and Kotori? Well?"
"If I had remained on your side, I would've had to fight against Droite." Kaito answered. "And I care for her too much to do that. To me, going against you and the rest of this world is a small price to pay to be with her."
"Then I guess we're done talking." Shark replied.
"It's not as if we're killing the people of this world." Droite argued. "They will be elevated to a higher state of being."
"You call what you've done to the people of this city a higher state of being?" Hikari scoffed. "Practically every vampire we've seen around here is nothing but a mindless animal!"
"I wouldn't expect someone like you to understand, Signer." Droite told her.
"Forget it, Hikari. There's no reasoning with these two." Shark told her. "The only way to settle things is with this duel. I end my turn!"
Droite drew her next card. "I activate the Spell card, Morphia's Blessing! Because I have a Dead Star Xyz Monster in the Graveyard, I can add a Rank-Up-Spell to my hand." With that, Droite pulled a card from the middle of her deck. "Now I activate Rank-Up-Magic Morphia Force! With this card, I revive Butterfly Priestess and elevator to a higher form! Awaken, Dead Star Butterfly Blood Priestess!"
A cold mist covered the ground as a crystal coffin containing Butterfly Priestess appeared on the field. The priestess opened her orange eyes and a stream of purple energy flowed from Shadow Ray Lancer into the crystal. The red crystals surrounding the lancer shattered apart and the energy contained within flowed into the crystal coffin as well. In moments, the priestess' crystal encasement shattered and she emerged in her more powerful red-winged form. Orbiting around the Blood Priestess were five crystal orbs leaving trails of purple light.
Shadow Ray Lancer meanwhile had become withered. His golden spear and the gold emblem on his chest had become tarnished. The lines of red energy on his body had gone dark.
"I activate Blood Priestess' effect!" Droite announced. "By detaching an overlay unit, Blood Priestess destroys your monster!"
One of the crystal orbs orbiting the priestess shattered and she extended her arm towards Shadow Ray Lancer. A bolt of red light shot from the palm of her hand and stuck the aquatic knight, reducing him to a pile of dust.
"And now, because Blood Priestess used her effect to destroy an Xyz Monster, you take damage equal to its Rank time 600 points!" Droite continued.
Blood Priestess raised her hand above her head and shot two bolts of red lightning at Shark and Hikari. Hikari and Shark were struck but managed to remain standing. Their life points took a heavy drop to 5200.
"Because Shadow Ray Lancer and Dead Star Dragon are both in the Graveyard, Blood Priestess' ATK becomes 2600." Droite announced. "Blood Priestess, attack them directly! Blood Swarm of Death!"
The white-haired priestess flapped her red wings, sending forth a massive swarm of butterflies made of red energy. The swarm of insects bombarded Hikari and Shark, exploding as they crashed into them. When the attack finally ended, Shark and Hikari's life points had dropped to 1600.
"I activate my Trap, Shock Draw!" Hikari announced. "This card lets me draw a card for every thousand points of damage Ryoga and I took this turn!"
"Then I set two cards on the field and end my turn." Droite announced.
Hikari drew her next card. "For my first move, I summon Dash Warrior in Attack Mode!"
Appearing on Shark and Hikari's side of the battlefield was a warrior clad in smooth red futuristic armor. Its helmet had four yellow eyes like headlights and a black air tube that went from his mouth to his chest. Instead of feet, he had a pair of black wheels.
"Next I discard one card from my hand to summon the Tuner monster, Jackie Jumper!" Hikari announced.
Appearing on the field was a small robot with skis for feet. A sort of metal poncho with an arrow pattern covered its torso. Its head was a helmet with a black visor and three long spikes extending from the back.
"Because I now have a Tuner on the field, I summon the monster I just discarded to summon Jackie Jumper, Quillbolt Hedgehog!" Hikari announced. The bolt-covered rodent appeared on the battlefield. "I tune the level three Jackie Jumper into the level three Dash Warrior and the level two Quillbolt Hedgehog for a level eight Synchro Summon!"
Jackie Jumper flashed orange and turned into three green rings of light. The rings encircled Hikari's other two monsters and changed them into five white stars.
"Clustering hopes will become a new shining star! Become the path its light shines upon!" Hikari chanted. "Synchro Summon! Take flight, Stardust Dragon!"
The stars flashed into a brilliant column of white light that shot into the air. The light faded in moments to reveal Hikari's silvery-white dragon.
"I activate Blood Priestess' effect!" Droite announced. "Because Stardust Dragon's ATK is lower than hers, I detach one of Blood Priestess' overlay units to destroy it!"
"Then I activate Stardust Dragon's effect!" Hikari announced. "By sending Stardust to the Graveyard, I can negate Blood Priestess' effect and destroy her!"
Another one of the crystal orbs rotating around Blood Priestess shattered and she extended her arm towards Stardust Dragon. As soon as she did though, Stardust roared and flew into her. Both monsters shattered into particles of blue-green stardust.
"Nice move, Hikari." Shark praised.
"Yeah…" Hikari responded with a suspicious look.
"What's wrong?" Shark asked.
"Something's off." Hikari answered. "That was way too easy."
"Are you done?" Droite asked.
"Fine. I'll set three cards on the field and end my turn." Hikari announced. "And with the end of my turn, Stardust Dragon returns to the field!"
Particles of stardust began to gather together in the air and reformed into Stardust Dragon. The silvery dragon roared and flapped his wings, scattering more particles of stardust onto the field.
Kaito drew his next card. "I activate Rank-Up-Magic Morphia Force! With this card, I revive Dead Star Dragon from the Graveyard and evolve him into the supreme dragon of extinction! Awaken, Neo Galaxy-Eyes Dead Star Dragon!"
A large crystal containing the dormant dragon appeared on the field. Its eyes flashed to life and a stream of purple energy began to flow from Stardust Dragon into the crystal. In moments the crystal shattered apart and Kaito's three-headed dragon appeared on the field with a roar. A single crystal orb orbited around it. Meanwhile, Stardust Dragon's scales had gone dull and his body had become shriveled.
"I activate a Trap, Morphia's Gift!" Droite announced. "When a Dead Star Xyz Monster is summoned to the field with the effect of a Rank-Up-Magic card, I can attach this card to that monster as an overlay unit!" Droite's Trap turned into another crystal orb that began to orbit around Kaito's glowing dragon.
"I activate Cloud Dragon's effect from the Graveyard!" Kaito announced. "One time only, I can attach Cloud Dragon to a Galaxy-Eyes Xyz Monster I control as an overlay unit!"
Cloud Dragon reappeared on the battlefield and turned into a third crystal orb. The orb began to orbit around Neo Dead Star with the other two crystals.
"This was their plan all along." Hikari realized. "Droite wanted me to destroy Blood Priestess."
"What do you mean?" a surprised Shark asked.
"I don't know Droite as well as you do, but from her duel with Gauche I could tell that she's a calculating player." Hikari explained. "She makes all her moves carefully. And she had to know that I would use Stardust Dragon's effect to destroy Blood Priestess, yet she used her effect anyway without any sort of counter move to stop me. The only reason Droite would make a move like that is because she wanted Blood Priestess in the Graveyard from the start to power up Neo Dead Star!"
"You're pretty sharp. You really do take after your father." Kaito praised. "Droite and I knew that to beat a player with your inherited talent we'd need our strongest monster at its most powerful."
"Right now there are four Xyz Monsters in the Graveyard." Droite continued. "My Butterfly Priestess and Blood Priestess, and Shark's Black Ray Lancer and Shadow Ray Lancer. All four of these monsters give boost Neo Dead Star's ATK by 2000, which means his ATK right now is 6500."
"The two of you only have 1600 life points left. And thanks to Morphia Force, Stardust Dragon's ATK is now zero." Kaito added. "There's no way you beat us now. It's over."
"Don't be so sure!" Hikari told them. "You may have the strongest monster on the field right now, but this duel is far from being over!"
Author's Note: As I've written more and more Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfics I've tended to avoid writing tag duels because they take so long to do. In this case though I made a major exception. One thing I'm a little proud of in this chapter is the CXyz form I came up for Shark's Black Ray Lancer. I was kind of disappointed that we never got to see Shark use Barian's Force on some of his older Xyz Monster in the anime after he became Nasch. I only wish I could've shown off Shadow Ray Lancer's full power in this story.
Please review and let m know what you think.