An author's note presented by… the author. Unheard of, I know:
I recently realized that I've been confusing Neflite with Zoycite and writing Neflite as a female. However, gender changes (such as Zoycite's) have been made in transit from one depiction of SM to another, so rather than going back and fixing it all I'm just forging ahead with Neflite as a girl.
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"Well, that certainly is… interesting," Atem said. The small group that had been present at the tag-team duel had met back at the game shop with Lita, Yugi and Mina at around 6 PM. Serena has just recounted to everyone not present the events leading up to the fight with Neflite and Jaedite, then told Atem what had happened while he was knocked out. Atem ran his fingers through his spiky hair with a perplexed look on his face.
"When people like Bakura and myself Summon monsters like that, it's of the same shadow origin as 5,000 years ago. You, however, drew the magic from another source. I'm not so sure it is entirely safe to make that a regular habit, Serena," Atem said finally. Serena cocked her head.
"Why? It worked, and the monsters didn't disobey me or anything," She argued.
"I say this to protect you. Using your power drawn from the light of justice and the energy of your Prism to summon monsters that live within the shadows could begin to corrupt it. And yes," he added at the questioning look on Serena's face, "all Duel Monsters come from the shadow spirit world."
"So, no dipping in to the Shadow Realm with our Prism powers. Got it," Rei said. "So… I lost a game. I know Mina lost one. How's everyone else faring?" She asked.
"I defeated a graduate of the Duel Academy to win a locator card, but did not take his rare card. He had some sort of bond with it, I couldn't bring myself to break it," Amy said.
"Atem and I tag-dueled Rex Raptor and Weevil Underwood and beat 'em despite a couple underhanded tricks," Serena said proudly. Yugi sighed.
"Go figure… those two may never play straight," He said disappointedly.
"We beat their asses afterward," Rei added cheerfully, indicating Joey. Yugi opened his mouth, thought for a moment, thought better of it and closed it again.
"Well, at least we've got progress on all levels. Plenty of players have been completely eliminated already, and the ones that remain either have nothing to lose or will be more confident to bet. We could go out and see if-" A knock on the door, rather frantic judging from the force and repetition, interrupted Atem. Solomon looked to Yugi, who nodded and answered it.
"Can I- Jaden?" Atem was shocked. The last time he'd seen Jaden was technically during their duel with Paradox, but not counting the time travel Yugi had last seen Jaden running head-first into him on the way to his Duel Academy sorting when Yugi had given Jaden his Winged Kuriboh. The boy had matured into a respectable young man since then; he was taller, his hair was grown out slightly and he looked less like the boy late for class and more like the man ready to take on the world.
"Uh, yeah. Hey Yu…gi…" Jaden's eyes widened as they darted between Atem and Yugi, the latter of whom grinned. "I'd ask, but there's really not a whole lot of time to talk. There's some really weird people trying to get into KaibaCorp. They kind of already knocked out the security, some type of spell from the looks of it. Made the area clear out quick. I heard something about satellites and energy draining," He said.
"Sounds like typical Negaverse activity to- oops," She stopped as she realized that someone who wasn't exactly in the know was in the room. The Scouts all looked at each other. "Erm… I mean, sounds like something we need to check out," Serena tried to cover. Atem smiled.
"I think it's alright, Serena. He's a friend, and we could use all the help in this matter we can get," He assured her. She thought for a moment. They'd already revealed their secret to four different people in Solomon, Yugi, Atem and Kaiba. Could they really just start telling anyone and everyone that said they wanted to help? Those who knew about it knew from dreams; they hadn't been told by the Scouts except Kaiba, and he'd already suspected that the girls weren't normal. But this new kid…
"Er… Can I get a word?" Serena asked Atem. Before Atem could answer, she grabbed him as well as Luna, who'd been seated comfortably on the lounge table, and whisked them upstairs. "Our powers are SUPPOSED to be a secret. Ever seen Power Rangers? The only reason you, Yugi and Kaiba know is because you had a vision and Kaiba already suspected by association. He may be your friend, or ally, or whatever, but none of us know him," She whispered.
"Serena, if we're going to fight together we need to know everything possible about each other. Jaden is an excellent duelist and person; we've fought side by side before. If he joins our group to combat Bakura, Beryl and the others, what are you going to do? Call Beryl, Neflite and Jaedite estranged family that you have a grudge with? In times where you need your Sailor powers, will you honestly be able to find a way to transform without him seeing?" Atem shot back hotly. Serena was taken slightly aback, but stood her ground.
"I don't know, OK? All I know is that our powers, our identities, are supposed to be a carefully guarded secret. We can't just go around telling everyone willy-nilly that 'Oh hey, I'm Serena Tsukino! In my spare time, I masquerade as Sailor Moon and fight the forces of evil!'" She replied. Luna cleared her throat, catching both party's attention.
"If I may, Serena, I might remind you that the reason your powers are so carefully guided is for the safety of others. If, for instance, your little brother or your mother knew about your powers, the Negaverse would easily be able to use them against you. They have no way of fighting back. However, I believe Beryl and co. will have a much harder time capturing someone as strong as Jaden," She told the Moon Princess. Serena stopped to consider this.
"I just don't want anyone in any more danger than they have to be," She said finally.
"Well, the longer we stand up here arguing, the more people the Negaverse has time to hurt," Atem pointed out. Serena sighed and looked to Luna, who nodded in agreement.
"Alright, fine," She said. Everyone looked up as Serena and Atem descended the stairs.
"Finally. I thought you guys had gone up their for a steamy makeout session or something," Lita teased, causing Serena to blush hard. She grinned, then turned back to Jaden. "So yeah, that's the basics. We're the good guys, they're the bad guys," She concluded. Serena developed a raging facial tic.
"You mean you told him everything?" She asked. Lita nodded. Serena and Atem looked at each and promptly did a true anime-style fall over. "OK, so apparently screw our whole secret identity thing," Serena sighed. "So, KaibaCorp huh? Well, what're we waiting for?" She asked. Everyone shrugged, those who could transformed and they were off.
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"Well, this is easier than I thought it would be," Jaedite commented. He and Neflite had already made it past the security guards, having drained some life energy in the process. Now they were busy making it past Kaiba's cameras, something they appeared to be accomplishing quite easily. The pair of eyes and the shadowy figure they belonged to that followed them disagreed with that particular statement, though.
"OK… we can use the elevator, which is sure to trigger an alarm since we can't get into it without a keycard. Or, we could hit the stairs," Neflite said.
"Option three would be explaining to me what the hell you think you're doing breaking into my personal business headquarters," Neflite jumped and spun around, trying to locate the voice. Jaedite eyed the darkness warily but was not so easy to startle.
"Afraid to show yourself, Kaiba?" He challenged. Seto Kaiba smirked in the black shadow that shrouded him from the two would-be intruders. Afraid? He'd been around the block with the whole dark magic voodoo crap before. He'd seen far worse than a couple of goons stumbling through his tower, avoiding cameras only to walk into every tripwire laser he'd laid.
"From the look of your companion, I wouldn't talk about being scared," Kaiba said calmly. Jaedite turned his head to look at Neflite and Kaiba struck, landing a solid right cross to Jaedite's cheek. Jaedite snarled and tried to fight back, but realized he couldn't see his target. Neflite realized that their assailant had the advantage with the lights on and focused, trying to find some sort of switch or something. A solid hit, a kick from the feel of it, to the stomach thwarted that search as she was sent to the floor.
"Jaedite, this is not a wise fight," She groaned as she got up. She heard her partner hit the wall and winced. A voice in her ear made her jump again.
"You're getting your asses kicked, aren't you? By who, the Scouts?" Bakura asked with far too much sadistic glee in his voice. Neflite growled. She'd put the damn earpieces in place for communication, not ridicule.
"Actually, it's Kaiba. The whole room is d- never mind. That makes- never mind," Neflite stopped cold. Good news: Jaedite had found the light switch. Bad news: the Sailor Scouts and Atem's entourage was behind them while Kaiba faced them. In addition to an already bad situation, it looked like some new kid had joined what Neflite had sarcastically taken to calling the Sailor Moon Justice Force.
"Especially in these odds, I would suggest leaving. And that's if you manage to leave without getting destroyed by them," Kaiba added smugly. The two villains looked from side to side, calculating, thinking of any possible escape.
"Tell you what. If I can beat you in a duel, you let us go," Jaedite challenged Kaiba. Kaiba grinned.
"I have no need to waste my time dueling trash like you when I can just have Atran-"
"I swear to Ra, Kaiba, you're doing this on purpose now," Atem said as Kaiba mispronounced his name AGAIN.
"Sorry. When I can just have Atem and his friends take you out," Jaedite's face fell as his gamble failed.
"Well… with this many of you in here, if it comes to a fight half of this floor of the tower will be annihilated! Lots of records gone, computers destroyed," Neflite pointed out.
Kaiba considered. That was a good point. He narrowed his eyes at the pair and looked at Atem, who shrugged. "Get the hell out of here before I change my mind," He growled. The pair turned and looked at the venerable force behind them, who after a moment's hesitation parted to let them pass.
"…This isn't the last you'll see of us," Jaedite threatened as they backed out of the doors. The pair calmly walked away from the tower and Jaedite sighed. "We just left our pride back there, Neflite," He said.
"Yeah. We did. Beryl's going to be furious and Bakura will be too busy laughing his ancient ass off to worry about it. I seriously wish there was some other dark being that knew about this ancient Egyptian stuff," Neflite agreed.
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"So what the hell're YOU doing here?" Kaiba asked as the offenders left. Yugi sighed.
"You're welcome, Kaiba. You do realize that if it came down to it, Jaedite WOULD have started destroying things in here by hurling crap at you with his telekinesis?" Serena asked. Kaiba was silent. "Thought so."
"I saw the two of 'em take out your guards," Jaden explained. "I knew Yugi was around and didn't want to go in alone. I didn't' know he had superhero friends with him," He added with a laugh.
"You're that Jaden Yuki kid, aren't you? The Slifer Slacker?" Kaiba said, turning his attention to Jaden.
"Slifer Slacker?" Atem echoed. Jaden smirked. This was going to be rich.
"Mhm. At Duel Academy, students break up into three dorms based on their ability as judged in their Entrance Duel; Slifer Red, Ra Yellow and Obelisk Blue. Blue is for the top-rated players. Red is for the ones that sucked and barely passed. Or, in my case, got stuffed in because the examiner got salty," Jaden added. The Scouts covered their mouths to hide the amused smiles, Joey's mouth was hanging open and both Moto brothers just stared.
"Really, Kaiba? Had to get a shot in somewhere, huh?" Atem asked, astounded. Kaiba smirked.
"My school, my rules," He said. Atem shook his head and sighed.
"Well, at least we averted a disaster here," Serena said. She shuddered inwardly at the thought of the Negaverse gaining control of Kaia's satellites in orbit. They were designed to track Duel Disk data, but it would be all too easy to reprogram them to begin draining energy from everyone on the planet simultaneously. Atem nodded.
"You should retire for the night. Another bright day of dueling ahead of you tomorrow," Kaiba suggested with a small smirk. Serena nodded. It sounded like a good idea despite the events of the previous night. "Try to keep the gigantic dragons and superhero magic to a dull roar tonight, will you?" Kaiba added dryly as he parted ways with the group. Serena smiled slightly and nodded.
'Alright then. And Ateko-" Atem's eyelid twitched. "Watch your back tomorrow. You never know what corner I might be around," Kaiba said with a grin.
"IT'S ATEM!" Atem shouted at his retreating backside.