ISLAND OF MADNESS
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The group of eight stood still in the darkness for a moment, seemingly collectively unsure of their next move.
Joey pulled out his phone and turned the flashlight on.
"Shut that thing off," Kaiba hissed. "That will just give away our location. We'll use light if and only if we absolutely need it."
Joey grunted, but complied.
"I don't like this," muttered Mai.
There eyes were slowly adjusting to the darkness, to the point where they could make out dim figures that made up the maze of giant shipping-style containers that covered a large portion of the warehouse's surface area.
"Ishizu, can you get us to the exit by memory?" whispered Yugi.
The Egyptian woman pursed her lips. "I think so."
Right as the words left her mouth, they heard a low thud. It seemed like an otherwise innocuous sound that was amplified by the way it echoed through the cavernous warehouse.
The group fell silent again.
"Do you think this is Mokuba-… I mean, Apep?" breathed Joey.
"I can't imagine it not being him," replied Pegasus in an equally low voice. "I can imagine it wouldn't take a genius intellect to realize we would come to Egypt for answers, but few other than the CEO of Kaiba Corp probably have access to the satellites to find out where in Egypt we are."
"Shut up," heaved Kaiba again. "Let's go, now."
No one really had much of an objection to leaving, even if they weren't a fan of Kaiba's tone.
The group stayed in single file, with Joey in the front and Odion bringing up the rear. The two of them and Kaiba were very clearly the most capable fighters there, and it was unsaid that given Kaiba was likely the target here, it would be counterproductive to have him engaging any possible assailants from the get-go.
It was cold, given it was night in the desert, and any temperature regulation in the warehouse had been shut down along with the rest of the power. Even so, Ishizu found herself wiping a rivulet of sweat from her forehead. Sneaking foreigners into this facility illegally had already been a stressful situation, not to mention the knowledge that doing so would likely tangentially involve her family in a Shadow magic affair.
She thought back to her conversation with Odion while they had been waiting for Yugi and his friends to arrive. She had brushed off his concerns about getting involved and had unilaterally decided to draw their family into the situation.
Right here, right now, with who knew what possibly prowling around them in the darkness, had it been the right call?
Ishizu knew it was. She owed Yugi Muto and the Pharaoh Atem everything for bringing her brother back from madness. She also believed that she owed Kaiba a fair bit too given she had effectively roped him into the conflict by giving him Obelisk the Tormentor. She had a deeply held sense of duty to help those who had helped her family and would never have been able to say no in a situation like that.
Yet, despite knowing she had done the right thing then, it didn't do much to alleviate the growing sense of dread within her…
Just as they were about to round a corner to their right, they heard a grunt, followed by a thump of heavy footsteps.
Joey stopped right as he was about to turn, and held a fist up to indicate that the others do the same.
Well, that confirmed it. Someone, or something was definitely in the warehouse with them.
They waited there, barely daring to breath. Joey turned around to face them. He looked a bit pale.
"What now?" he mouthed.
Ishizu pursed her lips. The maze of containers in this room was difficult enough to navigate in full daylight. With the lights out, she was relying solely on memory, which made things even more complex.
"Let's wait until it's safe," she whispered. "I don't want to risk getting lost."
No one else had a better idea. They waited a further two minutes, and then Joey poked his head around the container to the right and took a careful step forward. The others followed with measured trepidation.
Ishizu's eyes flitted from side to side, trying to absorb what she could of their surroundings in the relative darkness.
It seemed like they were on the right track. At the next corner, they needed to make a…
She never completed that thought, for from behind them came a harsh screech.
Everyone whirled around, and someone threw up their phone's flashlight to reveal an utter monstrosity.
Standing about six feet from Odion was a vaguely humanoid form about seven feet tall. It had no visible skin on its face, which was merely a narrow triangular skull with two large spikes on either side, and two cruel red pinpricks forming eyes. It had a similar, giant skull as an armor plate for its upper body, and held a bony shield in one hand, with a curved scimitar in the other.
It was instantly recognizable to half the party as the Duel Monster card Skull Knight.
It stood there staring at them, breathing heavily.
"Uh, run," suggested Joey.
The rest of the group needed no further invitation. They bolted forward, not really caring which direction they were going in, as the monster screeched again and then lumbered in pursuit.
Thankfully, it seemed a tad on the clumsy and slower die. It was almost too wide to fit through the gap between the shipping containers, and resorted to shrieking and hacking away at the boxes with its weapon to create room.
"What the hell is that?!" roared Kaiba as they tried to put as much distance as possible between them and the creature that no doubt wanted to enact violence against them.
"A Duel Monster Spirit!" shouted Yugi. "It has to be, given we're not too far from the original seat of Shadow magic! Somehow Mokuba found a way to awaken it!"
They kept running, and at the next corner, it seemed they were out of sight of the Skull Knight… for now, at least.
"What now?" panted Mai.
Ishizu paled and looked around. They hadn't really accounted for the direction they were going once they took off. She still couldn't really make out much visually either.
They heard another distant screech, but it was no doubt going to get closer.
"Sister, which way?" urged Marik.
She shook her head and groaned.
"Right."
Joey was still in the front, and was about to follow her direction, when they heard a cackle coming from that direction.
"Jee-ZUS Christ!" he groaned, stopping again, and dropping into a fighter's stance, knees bent and fists up to his face.
The others didn't even have time to decide whether to back up or not before the source of the cackle made its presence known in front of Joey. It was a purple skinned, human like creature in an opened white lab coat with black slacks, with a pink tie around his neck, glasses, and lower neck length black hair. Small purple spikes were sticking out of his coat on his back and elbows.
It was about… four feet tall.
From behind Joey, Kaiba couldn't quite tell for sure in the dark, but this beast did look familiar…
"Kozaky," he growled.
"Pleased to make your acquaintance," the Duel Spirit rasped with a deranged grin. "What a pity this might not last too long…"
"Yeah, all right, short stuff, we're not scared of you," grunted Joey. He strode forward and shoved Kozaky out of the way.
The mad scientist stumbled backwards and screeched.
Joey ignored him and turned back. "Which way, Ishizu?"
The female Tomb Keeper frowned, and then pointed left. The others began to filter in that direction.
Kozaky wasn't done, however.
"I may not be the most threatening monster here, but I can make a racket," he snarled.
"Oh yeah?" growled Joey, raising a fist threateningly. "Will whatever friends you have in here be able to hear you while you're eating a knuckle sandwich?"
"Are you really arguing with that living Duel Monster?" growled Kaiba.
Joey and Kozaky both ignored him.
"Try it," replied their adversary coolly. "We'll see if you can put me down before the Skull Knight gets here. Unless…"
"Unless what?!" exclaimed Joey, even more heated than before.
Kozaky pulled one sleeve up to reveal a still compact Duel Disk.
"Truth is, I'm a bit more civilized than some of the others I'm here with," he snickered. "Hell, I might be the only one with enough of a brain to see beyond low-IQ, brutish thuggery. Indulge me in a little game and I'll give you a running start before the rest get here."
Joey paused a second, seemingly considering it.
"Joey, what the hell!" exclaimed Yugi. "You're not taking this seriously?!"
"No, Yuge, it might be the right move here," his best friend replied, not taking his eyes off the Duel Spirit.
"Joey, we need to go."
"Yeah, I think you do need to," came the answer, while the blonde duelist extracted his Duel Disk from his jacket, and fixed it to its arm.
"Joey…"
"Look, he's going to keep following us and attract attention otherwise. I can deal with him here and catch up. Meanwhile, you guys need to find out where the hell these things are coming from, and shut that down if possible."
"We're on a time crunch here, mutt," growled Kaiba.
"Correction, rich-boy, you're on a time crunch. This is me actually helping you make that deadline, so how 'bout a little appreciation here, eh?"
Kaiba didn't respond to this, and moved on quickly.
The Ishtars and Pegasus didn't seem in any mood to argue either, and probably agreed it was the right call. They passed him by too, with Marik placing a quick hand on Joey's shoulder in support.
Mai was the last to go, and she fixed him with a hard state prior.
"Don't mess up here, Joseph."
Joey smiled at the use of the longer form of his name, but still didn't look away from his opponent.
"Of course not. I'm pretty sure there are more conversations we still need to have after our last one got interrupted."
Mai smiled at this too, and then moved on.
That left Yugi, who still seemed in two minds about leaving his best friend. Eventually though, he decided to trust him.
"Good luck, Joey."
"You got it, bro."
With that, Joey and Kozaky were left alone in the rather narrow corridor between the giant storage containers on either side.
"That was sickening," scoffed the scientist, before firing off his holo projectors.
"Yeah, when I want your opinion I'll beat it outta you," snapped back Joey, doing the same.
Both drew their opening hands and stared each other down.
"LET'S DUEL!"
(Kozaky: 8000, Joey: 8000)
"Allow me to kick things off by setting a monster in defense mode," announced the Duel Spirit.
A horizontal brown backed card appeared in front of him.
"I will further add a card facedown, before ending my turn. Move, if you dare." He gave another one of his deranged, sadistic smiles at that.
Joey rolled his eyes.
"All right, bozo, remember: you wanted this. I'm gonna summon my old reliable Gearfried the Iron Knight (1800/1600)," he declared triumphantly.
Appearing before him was another a warrior dressed entirely in thick black armor. Razor sharp gauntlets were attached to his wrists, and the alchemical suit was covered with lines of solid silver that ran all over it. Behind his helmet shone blood red eyes.
"Now let's get this party started… Gearfried, attack his facedown monster!" he commanded.
The knight dashed across the field, and brought one of his gauntlets scything down on the image of the facedown card. It popped over to reveal a large octagonal building with a doorway in the front part that opened to reveal that the inside had several levels with many books in shelves.
The building gave off a white pulse of energy that slammed into Gearfried and knocked him back to Joey's field, down on one knee.
"That was Royal Magical Library (0/2000)," sang Kozaky. "Seems like you have more in common with my oafish companions, who are no doubt tracking down your friends as we speak, than I initially thought."
(Kozaky: 8000, Joey: 7800)
Joey frowned. Not an ideal start.
"I'll call it there," he grunted.
Kozaky drew to begin his turn and his disfigured face lit up with glee.
"Time to bring the pain! I'll summon the most powerful level four monster in the entire game: Giant Kozaky (2500/2400)!"
A portion of the ground in front of him suddenly collapsed to reveal a drill attached to a chrome, light-violet arm; similar, cuff-like arms, one grappling a large mallet, soon joined it. The white, dome-shaped body of the machine resembled a laboratory jacket. A pink tie was painted on its front. Several cardboard patches were on the front and sides. The block-like head of the design had grey sides and a white center. Misshapen, glass panels served as eyes.
"Kozaky using Giant Kozaky, big surprise," snorted Joey. "Anyway, I know that card. If you don't have-…"
"If I don't have the regular Kozaky card in play, then yes, Giant Kozaky is destroyed and I am dealt damage equal to its attack points," finished his opponent.
Just as his sentence was completed, the suited machine exploded and consumed the field with fire and smoke.
"However," continued Kozaky with a dramatic flourish. "I'll chain my facedown card…"
He tapped a button on his Duel Disk, and a tree branch appeared, with a golden handgun tied to it.
"Barrel Behind the Door deals you any damage I would suffer instead," came the smug explanation.
The handgun fired, and although nothing visible issued forth, Joey felt like he had been punched hard in the gut.
(Kozaky: 8000, Joey: 5300)
"Why the hell do these holograms become so much more realistic whenever someone dangerous is involved," grumbled Joey to himself.
"I will follow that up with this spell card: Last Will."
A faded old scrap of parchment appeared on Kozaky's field behind the Royal Magical Library.
"As you're aware, my Library gains one spell counter with this. The best part is the spell itself though: if I activate this card during a turn in which I had a monster sent to the graveyard, like my Giant Kozaky just was, I can special summon from my deck any monster with an attack power of fifteen hundred or less."
He pulled his arm back in another dramatic flourish.
"Of course, I choose to bring forth, in defense mode… MYSELF (400/400)!"
Appearing before him in a kneeling stance was… another mad scientist who looked pretty much exactly like the duelist himself, sans the Duel Disk.
"Jeez, I thought one of you was bad enough," scoffed Joey.
Kozaky ignored this jibe.
"I will set one further card facedown, and end my turn there."
Joey drew, and breathed slowly.
It was not the best of starts, what with being almost three thousand life-points down and allowing his opponent to establish some decent field presence, but he wasn't going to let it rattle him. He was the Duelist Kingdom runner-up and a Battle City semi-finalist. Some punk Duel Spirit wasn't going to beat him.
He brightened upon seeing the card he just drew.
"Ok freak, try this on for size. I'm going to activate Cost Down. This allows me to discard a card to decrease the level of any monster in my hand by two."
"This gives me Library another spell counter," reminded his opponent.
"Yeah, too bad it's not going to be around for long enough for you to use it," snorted Joey derisively. "Cuz I'm going to sacrifice my Gearfried to summon out my strongest card: Red Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000)!"
The armored knight disappeared, and a gigantic shining silhouette materialized in its place. The silhouette slowly began to darken and take the form of a dragon with pitch-black scales, wings, and skin, widening its mouth to flaunt its fang-like teeth. What little light was present in the warehouse thanks to their duel reflected off the creature, giving it artificial white stripes around its outlines. Beady, squinted, crimson eyes flickered on the wide mug of the vicious dragon.
"Ah, an iconic monster reveals itself," hailed Kozaky.
Joey ignored this.
"Red-Eyes, attack his Library! Inferno Fire Blast!"
The dragon let out a terrifying screech, and its maw began to glow crimson-gold. A ball of flames appeared and then began to grow in size. Throwing its head back and then forward, the dragon unleashed its wrath upon the set of bookshelves.
"Not so fast," chuckled Kozaky, pressing another button on his Duel Disk. "I activate Zero Gravity!"
Suddenly, the field glowed green, and the fireball disappeared. The Red-Eyes growled and covered its body with its wings, while the Kozaky on the field stood up from its kneeling position with a cackle.
"As I'm sure you're aware, Zero Gravity switches the battle positions of all monsters in play, which means my monsters remain safe from your dragon."
"Yeah, but not your life points," growled Joey. "I go to Main Phase Two. If Red-Eyes can't attack, then I'll just play this spell: Inferno Fire Blast!"
The dragon screeched again, and while staying in a defensive position, spat out another fireball. This one succeeded in slamming into Kozaky, knocking him off his feet with a curse.
"As I'm sure you're aware," mocked Joey. "Inferno Fire Blast deals you twenty-four hundred in damage at the cost of Red-Eyes not attacking this turn.
(Kozaky: 5600, Joey: 5300)
"You want to challenge me to a battle of burn damage?" spat Kozaky, as he struggled to his feet. "Trust me, you won't enjoy it."
"I'll let you quit yer yammering and just play. That's my turn done," snorted Joey.
The Duel Spirit drew.
"All right, first I'm going to play the continuous spell known as Stumbling."
A green-bordered card appeared in front of him, depicting a green demon tripping over a messy pile of bones.
"From now on, every monster that is summoned faceup will be switched to defense position."
This didn't help him deal with the immediate threat of Joey's Red-Eyes, but the duelist said nothing, wary that there was likely more to the plan.
"Of course, this gives my Royal Magical Library its third spell counter, which I will remove in order to draw another card."
Kozaky promptly did this, and his face brightened.
"Here's my favorite pet, a delightful little thing that kept me company through many long nights of research. I summon Catnipped Kitty (0/500)!"
Emerging onto the field was a purple furred cat with a red bow around its neck with a bell on its collar. It had strange yellow swirls in its fur, giving it an unusual look.
"Of course, Stumbling drops her into defense mode, but that is irrelevant. You see, once per turn, she enables me to reduce the defense points of one monster you control to zero!"
"What?!" grunted Joey in alarm.
Kozaky pointed triumphantly at the Red-Eyes, which then glowed crimson and let out a mournful screech (2400/0).
"That means…"
"That your dragon is ripe for the picking," celebrated the scientist. "My physical avatar, attack it now!"
Kozaky the monster let out a shriek and bounded across the field. It looked utterly ridiculous for this midget of a man to be assaulting Joey's legendary dragon, but that's exactly what he did. He reached the Red-Eyes and threw a single fearless punch, which caused it to let out a roar and shatter into countless pixels.
"You'll pay for that one, freak," growled Joey.
"Well, you're going to need to make me, freak, and it doesn't look like you're going to be in a position to do that," taunted his opponent.
Unfortunately, Joey realized he was right. This was actually a fairly decent lock strategy that could prevent Joey from mounting a counter-attack unless he found a way out. Stumbling would shift any monster he summoned into defense mode, and then Catnipped Kitty would be able to reduce its defense points to zero. Of course, right now the only other monster he had was Kozaky itself, so Joey's life points were safe, but he could summon more and then attack directly. The only way out of it was to either get rid of Stumbling, or Catnipped Kitty.
"I see the weight of your predicament is starting to dawn on you," crowed Kozaky. "I'll end my turn there and let you try and struggle your way out of this."
Joey drew, bringing his hand size to three.
He looked at the new card. This could be helpful, and if things broke right, he had the resources in his graveyard to mount a comeback. If it didn't, though…
"I'll play this one card facedown, and move to my end phase. This allows me to activate the effect of the card I discarded to my graveyard when I played Cost Down: Red-Eyes Wyvern (1800/1600)!"
The faint translucent image of a smaller Red-Eyes Black Dragon appeared on his field. It was mostly identical to the original aside from size, and a faint purple glow that emanated from its body.
"I can remove this monster from play at the end of a turn I didn't normal summon in, which allows me to special summon my Red-Eyes back to the field from my graveyard!"
With a screech, the translucent outline on Joey's field began to solidify and grow. When it reached full size, the purple aura disappeared, and the dragon let out a deafening roar (2400/2000).
"Stumbling forces it into defense mode," reminded Kozaky.
"Yeah, I know that," dismissed Joey. "Go on and move."
His opponent drew, and cackled maniacally.
"I'm afraid your dragon is doomed again! Catnipped Kitty, reduce its defense points to zero!"
The kitten cooed, and Joey's dragon let out another mournful growl as the temporary magic hit it (2400/0).
"Next I'll summon a favorite test subject of mine: come serve me, Gagagigo (1850/1000)!"
A two-legged, green reptile like being came from a mud puddle in the ground, rising up and flexing with its large muscles. Several pink-like spikes stuck out of its arms, legs and back as defensive mechanisms. It had a fairly small, bald head, with pink fang-like teeth. It had a type of yellow cloth wrapped around both of its forearms, held shut with a pink band.
"Of course, it gets shifted to defense mode, but not for long. Meanwhile your Red-Eyes is through once again!" he declared, pointing in Joey's direction.
"Kozaky, attack his weakened dragon!"
The monster nodded in a deranged fashion upon receiving the command from his doppelganger, and began to bound forward again.
"Not so fast!" declared Joey. "I activate Fairy Box!"
Just as Kozaky crossed the halfway point between their fields, a curious thing happened. A giant Whack-A-Mole box appeared on Joey's field, engulfing his Red-Eyes. It had six holes on top of it.
Kozaky the monster stopped, as if unsure what to do for a second.
"What is the meaning of this?!" spluttered Kozaky the duelist.
"Simple!" grinned Joey. "When I activate Fairy Box, I get to flip a coin. If I call it right, then your monster gets its attack points dropped to zero until the end of the turn!"
A holographic coin appeared in the middle of the field, and was flipped into the air.
"Cmon¸ Dame Fortune… Come through for me one more time!"
"I call heads!" voiced Joey dramatically. The coin began to fall, and when it hit the ground both duelists craned their necks to see the result.
It was heads.
"Hell yeah!" Joey exclaimed, pumping his fist.
Kozaky leapt up to attack one of the holes in the box, and as he descended, an ugly green cartoonish mole popped up out of it. He collided with it headfirst, and fell to the ground cursing (0/400).
"Since your Gagagigo and your Catnipped Kitty are in defense mode, looks like my Red-Eyes is safe!" declared Joey triumphantly.
The Duel spirit gritted his teeth and adjusted his glasses. Unfortunately, this was a true statement.
"Fine, I'll end my turn there. Do your worst."
With that, the Red-Eyes materialized outside the Fairy Box once again, receding into the background (2400/2000).
"Got a flair for the dramatic I see," snorted Joey, drawing.
He grinned. "Well, I need to pay 500 life-points during my standby phase to keep Fairy Box in play, and given it looks like I'm not gonna need it, I'll just go ahead and skip that."
With that, the box disappeared.
"Then I'll play Pot of Greed, so I can draw two more cards."
The ever-familiar grinning pot appeared on Joey's field, and he increased his hand size to four.
"All right, here's a monster you're not gonna like seeing: Little Winguard (1400/1800) in attack mode!"
Materializing on Joey's field was, true to its name, a rather diminutive warrior. Its entire body was covered in light blue armor, including a helmet over its face that left only a small slit for its eyes to peak through. Its proportions were akin to those of a child, with longer arms and legs compared to its tiny torso. Nevertheless, it held a shield and a sword that looked like it could cut steel.
"Won't do you much good while I still have Stumbling in play, making it an easy target for my combo next turn," reminded Kozaky, as the new monster indeed went into a kneeling position and held its shield up defensively.
"Just wait and watch," dismissed Joey. "You should be more concerned about the world of hurt my Red-Eyes is about to inflict on your Gagagigo. Inferno Fire Blast!"
As he finished speaking, the dragon once again threw its head back and spat out a gigantic fireball across the field. Before its target had the time to try and flee, it was reduced to a pile of cinders, and its owner was knocked off his feet by the explosion.
"Had enough?" threatened Joey.
The disheveled Kozaky got to his feet, adjusting his glasses. "You'll pay for that!"
"Yeah, yeah," came the dismissive response. "I'll move to end my turn, and activate Little Winguard's effect: he lets me change his battle position during my end phase! This means no more target for your Catnipped Kitty's effect, since now both my monsters are in attack mode!"
As he said this, the warrior on his feet stood up again, waving its sword comically at Kozaky, who simply drew, and then grunted.
"I will shift both Catnipped Kitty as well as Kozaky to defense mode. Then, I'll place one card facedown and end my turn."
Joey drew, and grinned.
"All right! I'm gonna summon Black Metal Dragon (600/600)!"
Another dragon appeared on Joey's field, with this one being most unusual looking. It kind of resembled the Red-Eyes, but this one was quite a bit smaller, and looked almost machine-like. Its black scales had a distinctly metallic look to them, with its eyes being a piercing, artificial blue instead of crimson.
Joey held a hand up. "Yeah, yeah, I know it's going to defense mode. That's just fine though, because you're not going to be have any monsters to attack it next turn! Red-Eyes, Little Winguard: attack his Kozaky and Catnipped Kitty now!"
A fireball incinerated Kozaky, but as the miniature warrior streaked across the field towards its feline target, a massive, metal totem pole appeared between them. It shivered and then let out a loud sonic clang. The Little Winguard dropped its swords and slapped its gauntleted hands over its ears in pain, retreating to Joey's field.
"Command Silencer?" conjectured Joey in a surly voice.
"Indeed," confirmed Kozaky. "That also allows me to draw one card."
Joey frowned again. "I'll end my turn, but you can't hide forever, short stuff."
His opponent glowered at the moniker, but then drew and looked at him maliciously. "Oh, believe me, I don't intend to. To begin with, I'll play Graceful Charity, which of course allows me to draw three cards before discarding two of them."
He drew, and then grinned. "Ah yes, this is perfect. I'll discard these two cards, and then play Fusion Recovery! This allows me to add the Polymerization I just discarded back to my hand, in addition to one fusion material monster in my graveyard."
This piqued Joey's interest. He was pretty sure that any of Kozaky's monsters he had sent to the graveyard weren't part of a fusion, unless it was the other card he discarded.
"I choose… Kozaky itself!" declared the Duel Spirit.
Joey was dumbfounded. "What the hell can you use Kozaky into?!"
"You'll see… right now! I play Polymerization to fuse the Kozaky in my hand with my Catnipped Kitty!"
The mad scientist reappeared on his doppelganger's field, and then disappeared with the cat into a vortex of light, which soon died down to reveal a young woman with purple fur covering her body, wearing a tight red skirt with a white lab coat that opened near the top of her chest, teasing at some cleavage. She had cat ears on her head, fangs, and a purple tail twitching behind her. She looked over at Joey and pouted.
Kozaky the duelist stared fondly at his newest monster. "This is Kozaky's Sexy Kitty (1000/1000)."
A bead of sweat rolled down Joey's forehead. "Dude… I'm going to need some therapy after this duel."
His opponent ignored him. "For starters, this little ball of joy gives every monster with "Kozaky" in its name on the field, including herself, five hundred extra attack and defense points."
The woman cooed as she glowed for a moment (1500/1500).
"Yeah, that's nice and all Jeeves, but that's not gonna cut it," stated Joey.
"Well, that's not her only effect," replied his opponent. "While she is on the field, I can also change the battle position of any Kozaky monster even on the turn they are summoned. Allow me to demonstrate: I summon a second copy of Kozaky (400 - 900/400 - 900)!"
Another mad scientist appeared on his field, identical to the duelist that paid him but for the lack of Duel Disk on his left arm. He looked bashfully at the female scientist next to him, who simply beamed in return. He then dropped into a kneeling stance, with his arms up protectively.
"Then, now that he's in defense mode thanks to Stumbling, I will switch him back to attack mode thanks to Kozaky's Sexy Kitty!"
The woman went up and whispered something in her fellow monster's ear. He let out a gasp and immediately jumped up into a fighting stance.
"This is a lotta effort for a couple monsters who are barely as strong as my Red Eyes combined," grunted Joey.
"I'll make you eat those words," came the angry retort. "Here comes the pièce de resistance of this combination: I'll activate Monster Reborn, in order to bring back my Giant Kozaky!"
"Ah crap," muttered Joey, as a massive silhouette appeared on his opponent's field. Soon, the light cleared to reveal the very vaguely humanoid robot, complete with its drill, mallet and pink tie (2500 - 3000/2400 - 2900).
"I have now assembled the Kozaky trinity, and they will lay waste to your pathetic monsters. Of course, first I will shift Giant Kozaky to defense mode because of Stumbling, but then I will take advantage of Kozaky Sexy Kitty's presence once again and revert him back to attack mode! Kozaky, lead the charge and destroy his Black Metal Dragon!"
Joey grinned slightly as the scientist raced across the field and knocked his robotic dragon's head off with a single punch.
"Good for you, but when Black Metal Dragon is destroyed in battle, I can add one monster with "Red Eyes" in its name from my deck to my hand."
"Call all the dragons you want, it won't help you!" growled his opponent. "Kozaky's Sexy Kitty will attack your Little Winguard, and Giant Kozaky will finally rid me of your Red-Eyes Black Dragon once and for all!"
The fusion skipped across the field giddily and leaned over and carefully tapped the armored warrior on the head, which then exploded into pixels. Meanwhile, the robot crossed the field as well, and used the arm attached to the mallet to deal a devastating blow to Joey's dragon, which let out a pained screech, and exploded as well.
(Kozaky: 5600, Joey: 4600)
Joey smirked, despite being the recipient of the first points of battle damage dealt in the entire duel.
"Yeah… about that."
He threw down a card in the monster zone of his Duel Disk.
"What are you doing?!" shrieked Kozaky.
"I'm activating the effect of my Red Eyes Retro Dragon (1700/1600) from my hand! When a level seven or lower Red-Eyes monster is destroyed, I can special summon him from my hand!"
A new dragon materialized. This one also vaguely resembled the original Red-Eyes, but was also smaller and had red armor plates over its scales on its chest, neck, wing tips, snout and above each talon. It also for some reason had a pair of golden gears jutting out of each thigh.
"And I'm not done yet: this is the part you're going to hate," emphasized Joey. "When he's summoned this way, I can also special summon back the Red Eyes you just destroyed!"
Appearing next to the mechanized dragon was Joey's favorite monster again, letting out another roar to announce its return (2400/2000).
Kozaky let out a snarl. "WHEN WILL I BE FREE OF THIS DRATTED LIZARD?!"
Joey merely snorted derisively at this outburst.
"Fine," seethed Kozaky. "I move to my second main phase, and will now activate Raregold Armor. This is an equip spell that I will use to target Giant Kozaky: now you may only target him if you choose to attack, and my other monsters cannot be attacked as long as Raregold Armor is in play."
As he spoke, plates of white armor with gold filigree materialized on the machine's body.
"Damn," reacted Joey with a grunt.
His opponent nodded in a self-satisfied manner. "Yes, "damn" indeed. Giant Kozaky is now both my perfect shield and sword. You may have thought there was an easy way out of this by running over my Kozaky with some puny monster and destroying Giant Kozaky that way, but I have foreseen and prevented that!"
With this, he broke into a maniacal laugh.
Since he had no more cards in his hand, Joey took it as a chance to begin his own turn and drew.
"Hmm," he thought. "It would have been so easy to just blow up his Kozaky with my Red-Eyes, and then take out the Giant Kozaky too and let him take that effect damage, but he does have a pretty impressive lockdown combo here. If I can just figure out a way to break it, I can press that advantage and take him down in no time. He's got no cards in his hand, after all…"
"Well, thanks to your Stumbling, both my dragons are in defense mode. So I'll just leave 'em like that, and then go ahead and place this one card facedown."
A brown-backed card materialized vertically behind the two dragons that had their wings crossed over their torsos.
"I end my turn."
Kozaky drew with a malicious smile.
"Ah, this is just a symbol that I am destined to defeat you here today. I activate the Card of Demise!"
Joey grunted. "There goes my biggest advantage.."
"Of course, I can draw five cards now at the cost of having to discard my entire hand five turns from now… I find it unlikely the duel won't be over by then, however."
He slapped a card on his monster zone. "First, I think Stumbling has outlived its usefulness. I'll activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy it!"
A miniature cyclone appeared on the field, blowing away the pile of bones that had been forcing monsters into a kneeling position.
"Then, I summon Gene-Warped Warwolf (2000/100) in attack mode!"
A large, white werewolf rose to the field. It had a snarling, devious look on its face, shooting out a stare of impatience with its black eyes.
"He's quite the scientific achievement, wouldn't you say?" mused Kozaky.
"I don't got time for your yappin', just go!" snapped back Joey.
"Fine!" His opponent thrust his hand out, finger pointed squarely at the Red-Eyes. "Giant Kozaky: lead the charge and destroy his dragon once and for all!"
The robotic titan began to make its way across the field again, drill whirring. Just as he drew his mallet back, ready to deal the fatal blow, a grinning miniature leprechaun in a green hat and boots, wielding a pickaxe and a shovel appeared in between it and its target.
"What the-…" began Kozaky, but he didn't have time to finish, as then a familiar totem pole materialized in said leprechaun's hands and emitted a sonic wave that stopped the Giant Kozaky in its tracks.
"That was just my Graverobber," informed Joey with a cheeky grin. "I can use it to mimic the effect of any spell or trap in your graveyard: of course I chose Command Silencer, which protects my Red-Eyes and lets me draw another card."
"Fine!" snapped the Duel Spirit. "Your Retro Dragon won't be as safe, however: Warwolf, kill it!"
The mutated creature snarled and bound across the field. With a single slash of its claws, the smaller dragon was torn in half, before exploding into nothingness with a pained roar.
"Since your Red-Eyes has too many defense points for either my Kozaky or Sexy Kitty to defeat, I will place one card facedown and end my turn there," growled Kozaky.
Joey closed his eyes briefly before drawing.
"Really need something good here…"
He snapped them open and glanced at the card, before his face broke out into another grin.
"I know you put a lotta effort into putting your little Kozaky army together, short stuff, but unfortunately it's all gonna be for nothing."
"Stop calling me that!" roared his opponent, but this went ignored.
"First, I'll play Premature Burial: paying eight hundred life-points to bring back my Red-Eyes Retro Dragon (1700/1600)!"
The black-scaled, red-armored dragon that had just left Joey's field the turn before reappeared.
(Kozaky: 5600, Joey: 3800)
"It may be stronger than my weaker two monsters, but remember, thanks to Raregold Armor you can only attack Giant Kozaky," warned the Duel Spirit.
"Trust me, he's not the full story here," grinned Joey.
"For the main event, I'll sacrifice my Red Eyes," he gave his prized dragon an apologetic look as he said this, before continuing, "to summon my Red-Eyes Archfiend of Lightning (2500/1200)!"
The iconic dragon vanished, and in its place materialized a hulking beast shrouded in light. As the light began to clear, its form was revealed: a creature that resembled the Summoned Skull a fair bit, but with several different features. It had the same purple muscle under the skeletal frame, with three claws on both hands and feet. It also, however, had black gauntlets over all four limbs, wings that were a dark shade of red, and piercing crimson eyes.
"Now, my Red-Eyes Archfiend here is a Gemini monster… which means he's a plain ole vanilla right now, but I can also normal summon him again to give him an effect."
"It's too bad you've already used your normal summon, and my Giant Kozaky isn't going to let it stick around long enough for you to use another," jeered Kozaky.
"Yeah, well, that's where my Retro Dragon comes in," smirked Joey. "By sacrificing him, I can normal summon once more this turn, as long as it's a Red-Eyes monster."
He pointed at the fiend-dragon hybrid, which glowed black as the Retro Dragon vanished with a roar.
"What effect would that creature have to help you make headway against this army I've assembled?" growled his opponent.
"Gee… Only that once per turn I can destroy all monsters your field with defense points lower than its own attack points!"
"What?!" came the shocked reply.
The Archfiend's deep crimson eyes glowed even harder, and it let out a roar. Raising its arms, lightning began to lance off its form, dancing across the field in streaks, hitting Kozaky, Kozaky's Sexy Kitty and Gene-Warped Warwolf separately. All three let out cries of pain before exploding.
"And since your Kozaky is gone, looks like you don't get to keep a certain level four monster with twenty-five hundred attack points in play anymore either," chortled Joey.
Just as he finished that sentence, it was as if a chain reaction on his opponent's field was set off, with the armored machine letting out a cry and exploding as well, knocking its owner off his feet.
(Kozaky: 3100, Joey: 3800)
"Now that your field is clear, and you so generously got rid of Stumbling, I'll have my dragon attack you dire-…"
Joey was interrupted by a growl from his opponent, who staggered to his feet.
"You will pay for that."
"Yeah, short stuff, maybe in another life," muttered Joey dismissively. "Anyway, Red-Eyes Archfiend, atta-…"
"I. SAID. STOP CALLING ME THAT!" bellowed Kozaky, slamming a button on his Duel Disk.
"Giant Kozaky Core Breach… ACTIVATE!"
At this point, Joey realized that the Giant Kozaky's smoldering remains were still on the field. They had begun blowing purple, and something very large seemed to be pushing its way out of said remains. As the new arrival came into view, it could be made out that the creature had purple skin, a tattered white lab coat, ripped grey pants, a mangled black tie, and a pair of shattered glasses on its nose. Sticking out its back were several scale-like spines that glowed with a green glow. Its right arm resembled a lobster claw, with its tree-trunk legs looking reptilian in nature. Protruding out of his mouth were a pair of mismatched fangs.
"Jesus… What the hell is that?!" muttered Joey in disbelief.
"That is my Mutant Kozaky (2900/2800)," came the reply. "It can only be summoned from my hand, deck or graveyard by the effect of Giant Kozaky Core Breach, which activates only when Giant Kozaky is destroyed by its own effect."
Joey frowned. "Man, I really walked into that one…"
"Mutant Kozaky gains four hundred attack points for every card with the word "Kozaky" in its title in my graveyard. I have two copies of the original Kozaky, Kozaky's Sexy Kitty, Giant Kozaky and now of course Giant Kozaky Core Breach, which is five in total."
As he spoke, the chimera on his field glowed purple again (4900/2800).
"Mutant Kozaky represents the amalgamation of my life's work, and he is here to make you pay," hissed Kozaky. "Now, I believe you were going to have your dragon attack me?"
Joey frowned.
"My Red-Eyes Archfiend is already in attack mode… If his new freakshow destroys it, he'll only need to draw a monster with fifteen hundred or more attack points and I'm toast."
"All right… I'll call it there, go ahead and make your move, short stuff."
The quip at the end that his opponent so obviously hated was added to try and infuriate him even more. At this stage, the angrier he was able to get Kozaky, the greater chance he made a mistake.
Kozaky simply grinned maliciously in response.
"Your words don't carry the same weight when I know you're scared. I'll draw."
He glanced at the new card for a second, and then pointed at Joey's sole monster.
"Mutant Kozaky, FINISH his monster."
Joey simply watched in quiet helplessness as the abomination charged across the field, mechanical parts creaking. It seized his Archfiend by the neck, lifted it up and began to repeatedly smash its head against one of the nearby container units. It was a rather gruesome scene. Within seconds, it then discarded the corpse, which then exploded into pixels.
(Kozaky: 3100, Joey: 1500)
"I'll place one card facedown and end my turn. Next go around, you're through," growled his opponent.
Joey drew, steeling himself. Unfortunately, that imbecile was right. If he couldn't turn things around and fast, this was going to get away from him…
He looked over his hand. A small bit of hope sparked within him as he saw the faint beginnings of a possible counter-attack strategy. It would rely on a bit of luck, for sure, but hey: he was Joey Wheeler. For some reason, Dame Fortune seemed to have a way of having things turn out in his favor more often than not over the years.
"First I'll play Cards of the Red Stone, which lets me discard one level seven or higher "Red-Eyes" monster and draw two cards instead. So I'll send Red-Eyes Alternative Black Dragon (2400/2000) to the graveyard."
He did so, and then drew. His face brightened.
"Then I'll play Foolish Burial, which lets me send my Totem Dragon (400/200) from my deck to the graveyard."
"Are you just sending your monsters directly to the graveyard so that my Mutant Kozaky won't get the chance to?" snapped Kozaky.
"Ya know, for a scientist, you're really bad at this strategy thing," mumbled Joey. "I'll go ahead and put this monster facedown and call it there."
"Your end is nigh," growled his opponent. "I'll draw, and then summon my Science Soldier (800/800)."
Materializing on Kozaky's field next to Mutant Kozaky was a man in green battle fatigues with a white helmet, chest and shoulder pads, along with a gas mask. He carried a bag with cannisters on his back, and held a ray gun of some sort.
Joey heaved an internal sigh of relief. He would last the turn, at the very least.
"Now, my Mutant Kozaky will ANNIHILATE your facedown!"
Once again, the experimental monstrosity lumbered its way down the field, snarling as it went. Joey's facedown flipped up to reveal a glowing red gem floating in the groove of a rock face. Mutant Kozaky simply raised its claw up before bringing it down to smash both the gem and the rock.
"You destroyed my Black Stone of Legend (0/0). That make you feel good about yourself?" quipped Joey.
Kozaky ignored the comment and declared, "Science Soldier, attack him directly!"
The masked monster simply raised his gun, pointed it at Joey, and fired out a bolt of red energy. It hit Joey in the chest, and he grunted in pain. It was always curious how sometimes these holographic attacks actually caused some real physical sensation, but then again, he was dueling a real live Duel Monster, so he knew not to question it.
(Kozaky: 3100, Joey: 700)
"One more turn and you're through," hissed his opponent.
Joey paused a beat before sliding the next card off his deck and looking at it.
He grinned.
"First things first, Totem Dragon's effect activates from my graveyard. During my standby phase, if I got an empty field, I can revive him in attack mode."
A very strange looking dragon appeared on Joey's field. It had an extremely long and thin neck, attached to a short and round body that looked like a tortoise shell. Its four limbs were tiny in comparison to its neck and wings, all of which were covered in golden scales. It also had an enormous mouth, filled with giant metallic teeth (400/200).
"What a pathetic creature. Even my Science Soldier can destroy it, you aren't saving yourself from my Mutant Kozaky with that," hissed Kozaky.
Joey ignored him.
"Then I'll activate Black Stone of Legend's effect from my graveyard too. By sending one level seven or lower Red-Eyes monster that's also in my graveyard back to my deck, I can add Black Stone of Legend back to my hand. I'll pick Red-Eyes Wyvern (1700/1600)."
He did both these things, increasing his hand size to five.
"Then I'll summon it right away in attack mode!"
The glowing red orb materialized (0/0), drawing another peeved reaction from Kozaky.
"Are you trying to make your turn last as long as possible to delay your defeat?!"
"Just you wait, pal," grunted Joey. "After that, I'll play Swing of Memories, which lets me summon one normal monster from the graveyard, as long as I destroy it at the end of the turn. Of course, I'll bring back my Red-Eyes Black Dragon (2400/2000)."
Kozaky was practically glowering at the sight of Joey's signature monster returning to vex him yet again, but before he could make another snide comment, Joey held up another card.
"You're through, Kozaky! I'll play Quick Summon, which allows me to perform one more normal summon this turn. I sacrifice Totem Dragon, Black Stone of Legend, and my Red-Eyes to summon Gilford the Lightning (2800/1400)!"
As Joey finished his declaration, raging lightning blasts started flowing from the ground below, circling into the air and crashing down in front of him, shooting out a blinding ray in all directions. As the light died down, the three dragons had vanished and in their place was a tall, tan, muscular warrior whose brown eyes were surrounded by a light-teal mask. He had heavy-metal shoulder pads, and wrist bands, and wore waving red cloth-like pants. He had a metallic vest covering all but his six-pack abs. From a black sheath behind him, he pulled out a long, white sword that shrunk near the handle, then expanded near the top. A tattered and red cape whipped out behind him.
Kozaky shrank back in horror. "No!"
"Since I sacrificed three monsters to summon him, Gilford's effect activates and I can destroy all monsters on your field. Raigeki Blade!"
The muscular warrior nodded and raised his blade triumphantly. A bolt of lightning struck it from the sky, before he then dropped his arm, resulting in the wave being channeled forward in the direction of Kozaky's field.
"NO!" screeched his opponent. "I activate Interdimensional Matter Transporter! This will remove Mutant Kozaky from play until the end of the turn!"
Just as the lightning was about to hit, Mutant Kozaky simply vanished. It did eviscerate the Science Soldier though, who was reduced to a pile of cinders, leaving Kozaky's field temporarily bare.
"I have thirty-one hundred life-points left, and your Gilford has only twenty-eight hundred attack points! He can't defeat me in time to save you from Mutant Kozaky when he returns!" snarled Kozaky with a savage grin.
Joey shrugged.
"I know he can't."
He then flipped the final card in his hand around, showing it to Kozaky, before sliding it into the spell and trap card zone on his Duel Disk.
It was Metamorphosis.
Kozaky froze, as Gilford vanished, leaving behind a portal that opened and began to spew out magma. An enormous, bulging dragon with violet, rocky skin and lava veins lazily climbed from the portal, curling up its white-clawed hands and making a snapping motion with its sharp fangs. Spiked hair streaks flowed behind the scaly, violet and orange being; its tail connected with the surface, leaving its thick imprint in the area.
"But Meteor Black Dragon (3500/2000) can, and I just summoned him because Metamorphosis allows me to sacrifice any monster and summon a fusion monster with the same level," finished Joey with a grin.
Kozaky was in full panic mode.
"No, no, NO! This can't be happening"
Joey thrust his finger out.
"Meteor Black Dragon, attack his life-points directly! Molten Meteor Blast!"
The fused dragon roared, and then its throat began to glow red. It seemed to be charging up for a second, before then belching out an immense, fiery boulder that raced across the field and slammed into Joey's opponent, knocking him off his feet and clean unconscious from the moment of impact.
(Kozaky: 0, Joey: 700)
The young blonde man took a minute to survey the scene before exhaling.
"Job done," grinned Joey, glancing over to make sure his opponent was out cold. He then deactivated his Duel Disk, all the holograms disappearing.
"Sorry short stuff, but I wasn't gonna lose here. Not while I still got some conversations to have."
He turned to his left.
"Now I gotta catch up to the others. Hopefully they didn't get into too much trouble without me."
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Well, that took a bit longer than planned, but here it is. To be honest, it's been a month between updates but I only started this chapter two weeks ago. I was a bit demotivated with the lack of reach for this story as I've talked with some of you about in DMs, but honestly, I've changed my view on it a bit. I am still probably going to cross-post on AO3, but this story is first and foremost for me. I obviously like feedback, as any author does, but I decided to write this for deeply personal reasons. So we will keep trucking on and finish this story no matter what.
That being said, I of course would still love more reviews, so do please leave one if you are lurking and are able to.
So yeah, this was the first duel I have written in over ten years. I hope it was enjoyable, especially for the readers who were around back then.
Those readers may also recognize the Kozaky deck and CACs: yes, they were used in Nightrise and created by Metal Overlord 2.0. As I've said, this story will be borrowing from Nightrise and paying tribute to my YuGiOh fandom from when I was younger. Metal Overlord 2.0 basically functioned as a co-writer of sorts on Nightrise. He always had tons of ideas and contributed hugely to the overall plot. So this chapter is dedicated to him, and I hope he'll get around to reading this story as well. (Even the chapter name is a reference to the deck he created: Island of Kozaky)
GearfriedTheSynchro: Indeed, later on YuGiOh definitely delved into other mythologies, but with the original core of characters it was always about Egypt, and that's where this story will be grounded. Also, as if on cue, here was the first duel haha: I hope you enjoyed it.
ChroniclerDL: I was never going to leave any of the OG important characters out. They will all play a role, as I said before, I hope this story will be the definitive conclusion to the original series and provide satisfying conclusions to everyone's stories. Also, as I might have mentioned in DMs: Apep is a real figure from Egyptian lore, though I've adapted things a bit to fit with the YGO mythos.
Reaver72: I appreciate your compliments on character dynamics: I hope the same is true for dueling! Eager to see your thoughts on this chapter. Also yes, I will likely crosspost to AO3 at some point.
Well, that's all for now. Story Is well and truly moving now. Big things are on the way. Stay tuned, I will finish this as I have kept repeating. Reach out in DMs if I disappear for too long.