Courtroom Chaos Part I
Once again, Kaiba and Mokuba were in the woods.
'We have to get outta here!' Mokuba insisted.
Kaiba frowned. He activated the com. in his collar. 'KaibaCraft 3, do you read me? Is anyone out there?'
'Still can't get through?' Mokuba asked. 'What's the deal?'
Kaiba glared straight ahead. 'Listen, this place was designed to isolate us from outside contact. But that won't stop me.' He moved on. 'Let's go, Mokuba!'
His little brother was quick to follow.
New Haven, CT, USA
Shauna sat back.
Yugi and the Pharaoh had won their duel. Téa had won her duel. They'd run into each other. There were three groups left: Joey, the Kaiba brothers, and Sharee's Quartet. She was sure the Kaiba brothers wouldn't be challenged for a while. Noah was clearly more interested in torturing them. But Noah's conversation with Johnson had her focusing in on Joey.
Shauna was also subtly leading Yugi and Téa to him.
'All right, you old dudes!' Joey yelled. 'Show yourselves!' No one appeared though. 'Hear me? I'll kick your big business backsides! I'm tired of waiting for you suit-wearing, deal-making, pencil-necked geeks!' He moved down the corridor with a growl. 'Man, where is everybody? I'm sick of this place!'
In his frustration, Joey kicked a nearby wall. It cracked and then crumbled, like it was made of old clay. Joey cried out in alarm. 'Cheap walls.' Then the cracks in the wall grew even larger and the whole thing crumbled down. 'Nyah! Whoa! Real cheap walls!'
Shauna was instantly suspicious when she saw he'd…accidently uncovered a set of doors.
But Joey grinned. 'Check it out! It's some kind of door. Maybe I should just knock. Nah!' Joey kicked the doors open.
Shauna blinked in confusion as Joey appeared to have found the blimp. But it's a virtual world. The blimp wouldn't exist.
Shauna watched as Joey went into the blimp and went to Mai's room.
That didn't surprise her. Sharee had been on the phone to her before all this started. Now, she could see for herself. Joey really did feel very strongly for Mai. Just whether or not it was romantic love like Sharee and Mayet claimed, or just very strong platonic love she couldn't tell.
The gushing schoolgirl inside her wanted it to be romantic.
What happened in that room, though, had Shauna leaning back as Johnson had apparently taken on Mai's image and screwed around with Joey a bit before transforming into what he really looked like. The look on Joey's face said it all – before he recovered and got angry again.
'Okay,' Shauna said. 'Ew.'
Virtual World
Joey suddenly found himself behind one of those stands in courtrooms, facing the front of a courtroom. Johnson sat up on the judge's seat. 'And now, my friend, justice can be served,' he said.
'What's going on here?' Joey demanded.
'I told you,' Johnson said. 'Duel Monsters is like a trial so where better to duel than in a courtroom? And when you lose, you'll be sentenced to spend eternity here.'
'I won't lose, Johnson!' Joey snapped.
'I think you'll change your tune once you've had the opportunity to meet my Deck Master, so please be seated.' As Johnson chuckled, he morphed into the Judge Man. 'The Honourable Judge Man Presiding!' He hit down twice with a little hammer.
'Eh?' Joey drew back. 'It is an improvement, but it's not gonna help you win this duel.'
'Order,' Johnson said. 'One more outburst like that and I'm holding you in contempt of court. Is that clear, Joseph?'
Joey ground his teeth and growled. This guy's guilty of being a real pain in the butt!
He banged his little hammer again. 'The accused will now choose his cards from the card database so we can begin this duel.'
Rows of duel monsters cards suddenly appeared in front of Joey. He made a sound of surprise. 'Cool.' Still, he had to focus on this. He wasn't going to forget what the stakes in this duel were. If he didn't beat this suit, the washed-up old geezer would take over his body.
'Simply raise your right hand—' Johnson began.
'I know!' Joey interrupted him and began picking out all the cards that were in his usual deck. When he got the last of them, the cards in front of him vanished the deck he'd chosen appeared in his neck with a bright flash. 'All right! Let's do this!'
'Objection,' Johnson said. 'Before we begin, you have to choose a monster from your deck to serve as your Deck Master.'
'Whatever.' Joey took his deck out of his duel disk. He rifled through his deck. 'This shouldn't be too hard.' His eyes narrowed in on one card in particular. 'Folks, we have a winner.' He took the card from his deck and returned the rest of the deck to his duel disk. 'So, meet my Deck Master, Flame Swordsman!' The Flame Swordsman appeared at his side. Joey looked back at him. 'As long as this guy's standing next to me, Judge, there's no way I can possibly lose this!'
The Flame Swordsman turned to him and said, 'You have my word as your Deck Master that I will serve you well and guide you through this duel.'
Awesome! He talks.
'I assure you we shall defeat our opponent,' Flame Swordsman said.
Joey nodded and turned back to the opponent in question.
'As you know,' Johnson said, 'I will be acting as my own Deck Master. He struck his hammer again. 'So this court is now in session.'
They drew their first cards.
'Since we're in my courtroom, I'll begin this duel. Watch and learn.' He drew. 'Now,' he played his card, 'I call Hysteric Angel to the stand.' The card appeared on the field and a truly nerdy-looking female angel emerged from it. She smirked smugly and adjusted her glasses. 'She'll make sure you get the maximum sentence.'
It boiled Joey's blood again. 'That is the most annoying monster I've ever seen! She looks just like you do, Johnson!'
'Silence. It's time to call your first witness.'
'Yes, Your Honour!' Joey retorted. He drew. 'Here goes.' Looking at the card in his hand, he was happy with the results. Gearfried the Iron Knight!
'If you play that card, I can increase its attack points by decreasing mine,' the Flame Swordsman said.
'Awesome!' Joey set the card on the field. 'Then I summon Gearfried the Iron Knight!' His card appeared on the field and the monster emerged from within. 'And thanks to my Deck Master's special ability, he gets a power boost!'
The Flame Swordsman's attack points dropped to 1300 as Gearfried's attack shot up to 2300. 'Gearfried, attack his Hysteric Angel now! With Metal Forearm Thrust!'
Gearfried shot forward and slashed across the angel. Johnson's monster went for an ungraceful tumble and then shattered to pieces.
'He shoots, he scores!'
Johnson's life points dropped to 3500.
'Nothing but net!' Joey pumped his fist. 'Prosecute that, Judge!'
'My move!' Johnson drew with a chuckle. 'I place this monster face-down in defence mode and end my turn.' The card appeared on the field.
'Big deal, pal!' Joey drew. My Deck Master rocks! He thought with a grin. I can keep taking attack points from him and adding them to my monsters. 'So, what do you say we try this again, huh?' He took another card out of his hand. He set the card. 'Check this out. I summon Little Windguard in attack mode!' The card appeared on the field and the monster emerged from it. 'One more time, Judge! I'll move 300 attack points from my Deck Master to my Windguard!'
Flame Swordsman's attack dropped to 1000 and Windguard's rose to 1700.
'And then I'll use it to attack your face-down card!' Windguard sailed forward and sliced through the card in question.
'It looks like you've destroyed by Skelengle. This lets me to draw a new card.' Johnson drew the card in question.
Joey was feeling particularly good about himself. 'You'll need it, cause you're outta monsters! Which means I can do this now!' He called out to his other monster. 'Gearfried, attack His Honour's life points directly!'
Gearfried shot across and slashed Johnson. His life points dropped down to 1200.
'So,' Johnson said, 'having fun, Joseph?'
Joey laughed. 'No, I'm having a terrible time kicking you around the courtroom. Of course I'm having fun! And this party is just beginning, Johnson. Too bad you won't have anything to celebrate!'
Johnson sat there silently.
'Come on,' Joey said. 'What are you waiting for, Johnson?'
Johnson drew. 'I call Mystical Elf to the stand in defence mode.' The card appeared on the field and the monster emerged from it. 'And then I'll place one more card face-down. Any questions?'
Joey leaned on the railing in front of him, whistling…just to annoy him.
YGO
Shauna had actually gotten them out of the frozen wasteland pretty quickly.
They were following an upraised line in the dirt that was taking them to some kind of massive manorhouse that stood almost above the trees. Yugi wondered if Noah was aware of the outside interference. He didn't seem to be trying to hinder them, at least. Maybe he didn't know about it.
Téa was apparently on the same page. 'I'm surprised that Noah hasn't tried to stop us. Do you think Shauna's tricked him?'
'Well, he is younger than her,' Yugi said. 'And she's on the outside. She might have.'
'But Crump obviously did a background check on me,' Téa said. 'Why not Sharee? Surely Shauna would have come up.'
'Yes, but Noah might also think she's too far away to be a threat. After all, last time we were in a virtual world, she was right there in the lab. They know she's talented enough to work out the KaibaCorp systems, but they probably figure she can't do anything from America.'
'I hope so.'
New Haven, CT, USA
Shauna sipped on her coffee and watched the split screen of Yugi and Téa.
On the left side was what they were really walking through – a far friendlier environment and leading them straight to Joey. On the right side, she saw what Noah was seeing. As far as he was concerned they were still walking through the ice and snow. And she was keeping close enough of an eye on him to know that he was ignorant to the deception.
She'd even changed the conversation Yugi and Téa were having.
Shauna looked back over at the document, and at the age written down on it.
'Yeah,' she said to herself. 'It shows.'
Virtual World
Tristan suddenly sneezed.
Sharee looked over her shoulder in mild interest.
'Gesundheit, Tristan,' Serenity said.
'Thank you, Serenity,' Tristan said as he tried to clean himself up.
'That's what you get for swimming in the lake,' Duke remarked.
Tristan twisted around and snapped. 'Aw, zip it, Duke!' He grumbled. '"That's what you get for swimming in the lake"!'
'I did tell you to watch your step,' Sharee pointed out.
'Yeah, but…' Tristan shrugged it off.
Then Serenity sneezed.
'Great!' Duke exclaimed. 'Now you got Serenity sick!' He moved over and pushed him away from her. 'Way to go, germ-boy!'
'Oh, yeah, Duke! As if!' Tristan made a face and wiggled his fingers. 'You better stay away or you might catch my evil germs too!'
'Oh, you're a riot!' Duke shoved him again.
Then Tristan jumped at him and tried to get him into a head-lock. Duke ducked out and tried to sweep Tristan's feet out from under him. Both boys tumbled to the ground and continued trying to pin each other. Serenity watched all of this in alarmed confusion. Sharee watched as one might watch a spectator sport.
However, she saw Serenity's confusion and laughed.
'Don't mind them,' she said. 'They're teenaged boys.'
YGO
As they walked, Mokuba's pace had become more and more heavy.
'After today,' he said, 'I never want to see a virtual tree again.'
'It figures!' Kaiba was in the same mood. 'That brat Noah must be keeping us trapped here because he's too terrified to confront me face-to-face.'
Another door faded into visibility in front of them. Both brothers stopped walking.
Mokuba gasped. 'Check it out, Seto! Another door!' He looked up at him. 'Should we go?'
It was against his better judgement, but Kaiba nodded. 'Mm hm.' He walked ahead of his brother. 'Let's see where that kid's leading us now.' He opened the door…and froze.
Kaiba watched, rage boiling his blood the way it had on the day this had happened. This was the day Gozaboro had completely dismissed his virtual gaming program out of hand as a waste of time. Kaiba had resented the man before, but it was the first time that resentment had turned to full-on bitter hate.
And Kaiba was not happy to find that the years, and his triumph over Gozaboro had done nothing to lessen the blow.
But to make things worse! He stole my invention and passed it off as his own!
The office dissolved around them.
'Seto,' Mokuba said, 'we're back in Noah's virtual forest.'
Kid must've thought he was too focused on his rage to notice. He never was. 'I wouldn't call it Noah's forest, Mokuba. Because whoever helped Noah build this place is using the same virtual technology that our stepfather stole from me. Even though its been enhanced, the basic program is the same as mine.'
A vibration on his arm made Kaiba look down. Across his duel disk, right where the numbers would generally be displayed, a message slid across the screen. The code the preceded it confirmed who it was. It was obviously a means to communicate without Noah noticing. Kaiba almost smirked, even as he half wondered how she'd become aware of the situation.
THEN GIVE ME THE BASE CODE SO I CAN SEIZE FULL CONTROL OF THIS WORLD FROM HIM.
Kaiba looked up and nodded.
Keeping a thoughtful look on his face, he lifted his collar and whispered the code in.
'Seto?' Mokuba asked.
Kaiba dropped his arm just enough so Mokuba could see the identification code that was now sitting on the duel disk screen. It disappeared a moment after Mokuba saw it. But his little brother's eyes widened in recognition. Then he smiled and nodded. Neither of them said what was happening.
After all, they didn't want Noah getting wind of it.
YGO
'Call your next witness,' Johnson said.
'You got it!' Joey drew. 'Now look out!' He looked up across the field. Okay. So what's my plan here? He's gone one monster on the field and one card face-down. So, first thing's first: I gotta blow away his monster! He took a card from his hand and played it. 'I summon Rocket Warrior!' His monster appeared on the field. 'Pretty impressive arsenal I got here, right? Hey, Johnson! You got any last requests? Cause I'm about to throw the book, and a big iron claw, right at your last monster! All right, Gearfried, time to crush his Mystical Elf, now!'
Gearfried began his attack.
'Activate Deck Master ability,' Johnson said.
'Eh!' Joey drew back in alarm. 'Oh, man! That's not good! It looks like his Deck Master has special powers too!'
Johnson slammed his hammer again. 'Clear the courtroom!'
Joey cried out in alarm. 'Clear the courtroom? What do you mean by that?'
'I'm giving up 1000 life points to activate my special power,' Johnson said. 'And now you must clear the field of all your monsters, so you're back where you started.'
'No way!' Joey leaned on the railing. 'That's not fair! Where's my lawyer?' All of his monsters on the field vanished. He cried out in alarm again.
Johnson chuckled as his life points dropped to 200. 'And I'm not through. Next you'll lose 500 life points for each monster you were forced to remove from the court.'
'Aw, come on!' Joey counted on his fingers. 'I had three monsters so that means I lose…' He spun around. '1500 life points?' His life points dropped to 2500.
'That's correct, Joseph,' Johnson said.
'Great!' he said sarcastically. Okay. Minor problem, but I've got this under control. He looked back down at his hand. Now let's see. What have we got here? His eyes went to one of the magic cards he was holding. A Bottomless Trap Hole card! This baby will let me remove any monster from the field with 1500 attack points or more. Sweet! He's not the only one that can "clear the courtroom".
Joey looked back up across the field. 'Your days in this courthouse are numbered, Johnson! As soon as I sent that Mystical Elf of yours packing, I'm going straight for your life points!'
'And what evidence do you have to back that up, may I ask?' Johnson responded.
Joey took the card and set it. He turned his head, though, as the door behind him opened.
'Joey!' Yugi and Téa called as they rushed in.
'Hey, Yugi, Téa!' Joey said with a smile. 'Where you been?'
Johnson smacked his hammer again. 'Order!'
Joey turned back around.
'Settle down. This court is still in session, in case you hadn't noticed.'
'You're on trial?' Yugi demanded.
'I'm duelling one of the Big 5,' Joey responded. 'And you're just in time to see me wipe the courtroom floor with him.'
'I believe it's my move.' Johnson drew. 'So sit down. You're lucky I don't have you two ejected from this courtroom.'
Téa and Yugi walked over and sat down.
YGO
Yugi took in the duelling field. 'This doesn't look too good. Joey doesn't have any monsters and it's this guy's turn.'
'Come on, Joey,' Téa said.
The guy dressed up as Judge Man set his card. 'I summon Curtain of the Dark Ones.' The card appeared on the field and the monster emerged from within. 'Now I reveal my face-down card.' The card flipped up. 'Activate Polymerisation to fuse together my Mystical Elf and my Curtain of the Dark Ones!' The two monsters came together with a bright light.
Yugi looked at Joey's face. From the expression on his face, he wanted a stronger monster. That would suggest that the face-down card in front of him would prove…lethal to such a duel monster. The monster formed into a creature with an attack strength of 1300.
'Meet Kamionwizard,' the guy said. 'Next I'll play the card Sinister Justice.' The card in question appeared on the field. 'This allows my fusion monster to attack in the same turn in which it was summoned.' He called out the attack. 'Now, Kamionwizard, attack his life points directly!'
The monster leapt up and swung the scythe down at Joey. Their friend cried out in alarm. Yugi flinched as he remembered the pain the Pharaoh had taken in similar attacks in his duel. Joey yelled in pain as he was hit. Both Yugi and Téa called out to him. 'Oh, no! Joey!'
Joey caught himself on the pulpit he was duelling from, and took a moment to recover as his life points dropped down to 1200. 'Lucky move, Johnson.'
Okay, now they knew which one it was.
'Joey's in big trouble!' Yugi said. 'As long as Sinister Justice is on the field, Johnson gets 800 extra life points every time he attacks Joey's life points with his Kamionwizard.'
Joey turned his head. 'How's that again?'
Johnson chuckled. 'The spiky-headed pipsqueak is right.'
'His life points are going up!' Joey observed as Johnson's life points shot up to 1000.
'And there's more.' Johnson took a card from his hand and set it. 'I place this card face-down to seal your doom!'
The card appeared on the field.
'If it wasn't for that card, I would've won this duel,' Joey said. 'Now every time he attacks me, he gets stronger and stronger! You planned this all along, didn't you, Johnson?!'
'Of course. But I have far worse in store for you, Joseph!' Johnson laughed maniacally.