Settling the Score Part II

Sharee was driving at full speed now, but she had one condition.

'Why do I have to be tied up?' Tristan demanded, pulling at the short rope that anchored him to the corner of the truck's tray.

Duke answered in an annoyed tone. 'Because you're light as a feather. If we suddenly break, you're the one who's gonna go flying.'

'And you'll probably land in pieces,' Téa added. 'And the only one here who'd know how to reassemble you is…well, Kaiba.'

'It's only until we stop, Tristan,' Yugi assured him.

Tristan folded his tiny robot arms and huffed.

YGO

'Now, Mr. Kaiba,' Leichter said, 'where were we? Oh, yes. I had three times as many life points as you, and I was about to finish you off.'

'Just try!' Kaiba snapped.

'Very well. First I'll activate my Fairy Lily's special ability. You remember?' Leichter's life points dropped to 1600. 'I give up 2000 of my life points to boost her attack strength by 3000.' Her attack points went back up to 3400. 'Lily, attack and destroy his Behemoth!' She charged and his monster was shattered.

Kaiba scoffed. 'You've overlooked my monster's special ability. It makes a quick recovery.' The Behemoth reassembled.

'Too bad I'm always one step ahead of you, Mr. Kaiba.' Leichter set a card. 'First I'll place this card face-down.' The card in question appeared on the field. 'Then I'll activate the magic card, Emergency Provisions.' The card appeared on the field and the slug's head emerged from his card. It growled, showing sharp teeth, and then destroyed the card that Leichter had just played. His Fairy Lily jumped in alarm. 'By destroying my own face-down card, the Emergency Provisions boosts my life points by 1000.' His life points shot up to 2600. 'At this rate, wiping you out will be simple, and seizing control of your body will be even simpler.' He laughed.

Kaiba ground his teeth.

'Remember that enormous rocket I launched earlier in our duel?' Leichter asked, gesturing to a card with a gauge on the face of it. 'Well, if I were you, I'd keep an eye on its energy gauge, Mr. Kaiba.'

'Is that so, Leichter?' Kaiba asked.

He suddenly heard the sound of brakes squealing behind him. Looking over his shoulder, he was only a little surprised to see a green pick-up truck pull up just before the gap in the bridge. Sharee climbed out from behind the wheel, and Wheeler climbed out of the passenger seat. Yugi and the rest of the dorks hopped out from the tray.

'Okay,' Sharee said as she walked over to the edge and looked down. 'You can untie the monkey now.'

There was a smart remark on the tip of his tongue to the effect that Wheeler didn't appear to be tied up. But when Wheeler's sister appeared over the top of the cabin, that robot monkey from before appeared next to her. The dots connected in Kaiba's mind. Obviously, that was where the Big 5 had put Taylor's consciousness. Humiliating for him, but hilarious for Kaiba.

However, there'd be time to laugh later.

'Kaiba!' Yugi called.

'Yugi?'

Sharee shook her head. 'We're not getting across there without a ramp.' She looked up and shook her head.

'So how did Kaiba get across?' Gardener asked, walking over and looking down too, and promptly backing away.

Sharee folded her arms. 'Motorbikes are far more manoeuvrable than most other vehicles.'

'Yugi,' Wheeler said. 'Kaiba's up against one of the baddest Deck Masters of all time.'

'You're right, Joey,' Yugi answered. 'It's Jinzo!'

'And you know what that means, don't you, Yug?' Wheeler asked.

'I sure do. It means that Kaiba's trap cards are totally useless.'

He could have done without the reminder. Kaiba decided to start ignoring them now. He refocused on the duel and on the strategy he'd been cooking up before the dorks arrived. Leichter thinks he has me backed into a corner, but that old fool is in for quite a surprise. 'My move.' He drew. Looking at the card, he smirked. 'Oh, well. It looks like there's bad weather ahead, cause I activate this!' He set the card he'd just drawn and it appeared on the field. 'My Heavy Storm magic card!' A huge set of gale-force winds erupted from the card in question. 'Time for my storm to blow away all of your magic and trap cards, Leichter! Which means you're done powering up your life points!'

His Fairy Lily was bracing herself against the winds.

'As your step-father's right-hand man, I learned to anticipate his every move.' Leichter activated one of his down cards. 'And that's exactly what I've just done to you! For I activate Imperial Order!'

The king figure emerged from the card and lifted a hand.

Kaiba's eyes widened. 'Oh no!'

'Oh, yes, Mr. Kaiba. For a mere 700 life points per turn, this card cancels out all your magic cards. And you know what that means, don't you? Now you can't use any trap or magic cards for the duration of the duel.

Kaiba growled.

'And now the fun continues.' Leichter drew and his life points went up to 3100 again. 'I'll add 500 life points to my total with Solemn Wishes, and 1000 more with Life-Absorbing Machine.' His life points shot up to 4100. 'Then I'll sacrifice 700 to activate Imperial Order!' His life points dropped to 3400. 'Now that that's taken care of, I can finally unleash the power of my ultimate weapon!'

Kaiba didn't like the sound of that. 'Go ahead.'

Leichter lifted an arm to the sky. 'Satellite Cannon, begin firing sequence!' He then looked at Kaiba. 'When you took over KaibaCorp, you destroyed all the missiles that your step-father and I worked so hard to build. So it's quite fitting that I use this satellite missile to destroy you. Now say goodbye to your face-down monster.'

Something caught his eye and Kaiba looked up. There was a beam of light shooting out of the sky. He heard Yugi, Sharee, and the dorks cry out in alarm. He just braced himself. Then the blast hit with a blinding white light. Kaiba felt the heat and it was like a missile had really gone off just in front of him.

Covering his eyes, Kaiba looked over to see his monster be destroyed. 'My Wicked Worm Beast!' Smoke drifted up from where his monster had been.

'You seem a little stunned to me, Mr. Kaiba,' Leichter remarked.

Kaiba quickly schooled his features. 'How can I stop a weapon that's…' he looked up into the sky, '…up there?'

'You can't!' Leichter just about crowed. 'It's orbiting the Earth at an altitude of 240 miles—'

'Don't you mean 240 thousand miles?' Sharee called across.

Leichter ignored her. 'My Satellite Cannon is virtually unreachable!'

All he heard from the dorks was Yugi's, 'It can't be beat!'

'Satellite Cannon is so far above the Earth's atmosphere that it's shielded from the attack of almost every monster,' Leichter said.

'Almost?' Kaiba asked. 'How do you know I don't have a monster in my deck that can reach it, Leichter?'

'Trust me, Mr. Kaiba. By the time you summon a monster with the ability to attack my Satellite, it will be too powerful to destroy. That's because it gains 1000 attack points with each turn.' The card with a gauge displayed this. 'At last, the mighty Seto Kaiba is about to lose everything that he has. And it serves you right, after destroying your own step-father and betraying the Big 5! Now it's time you paid the price for using others to get what you want! Even your own brother.'

YGO

'What's he talking about?' Yugi wondered.

'Well,' Sharee dragged the word out for a moment, 'not that it's any of our business but KaibaCorp used to make warheads. Now they're a gaming company. A transformation like that would have been hard to pull off and even harder to sell. Yet Kaiba did it. He would have had to pull a lot of tricks to get that done. We're not hearing what actually happened. We're hearing Leichter's impression of what happened, which is quite different.'

'So,' Duke concluded, 'take everything he says with a grain of salt?'

'Pretty much.'

New Haven, CT, USA

Shauna smirked.

She'd made sure that Mokuba and Noah's view was more focused on what Sharee had said than what Leichter did. She was deeply amused to see the confused expression on Noah's face. That wasn't what he wanted Mokuba to see, but he didn't understand why he didn't have control over that one.

Still…it'd negated whatever Noah was trying to do.

Then a complicated expression took over Noah's face.

That confirms it. There's someone else involved – someone with more power than Noah.

Which meant that Shauna needed defences against that other person.

Virtual World

'…Gozaboro was so ashamed that he ran away and no one's heard from him since.' Leichter finally came away from his recounting of the tale of Kaiba yanking the company out from under his step-father's feet. 'So your cruel plan worked.'

'What's your point, Leichter?' Kaiba asked.

'You played us like fools!' Leichter snapped. 'Mokuba wasn't the snitch, now was he? It was you, wasn't it, Mr. Kaiba?'

Kaiba said absolutely nothing.

'You knew that your step-father liked people to think they were winning,' Leichter said. 'So when he beat them they'd feel that much worse. You began leaking your plan to Gozaboro and made everyone, including him, think it was Mokuba. So your step-father let you gain 49% of his company, thinking Mokuba would give him the two per cent he needed to stay in control. But you knew better, didn't you, Mr. Kaiba? You knew your little brother would be loyal to you, no matter how poorly you treated him.'

Okay, that one he couldn't just let slip. 'You're wrong! Mokuba was the only one I trusted. I knew that together he and I could take our step-father down!'

'You used him to achieve your own selfish goals!'

Sharee suddenly called over. 'You don't have any younger siblings, do you, Leichter?'

'What?' he demanded.

'Well,' Sharee said. 'It's just that you're so far off base, it's obvious that you don't know what it's like to have one.'

'Oh, and you would know?' he demanded.

Sharee smirked. 'I might.'

'Okay,' Kaiba said. 'That's enough of these head games of yours. We're playing duel monsters!' He drew. 'I summon Spirit Ryou!' He set the card and the monster appeared on the field. 'Spirit Ryou, attack his Fairy Lily now, with Sonic Flash Attack!' His monster began to attack.

'Have you forgotten, Seto?' Leichter asked. 'I can activate Lily's special ability.' Her attack strength went up to 3400. 'By giving up 2000 life points, I boost her attack strength!' His life points dropped to 1400.

'Kaiba, no!' Yugi called.

'Farewell, Mr. Kaiba!' Leichter crowed.

But Kaiba smirked. 'Not so fast. It's time for Spirit Ryou's special ability. He gains another 1000 attack points for each dragon I discard from my hand. And I have two!' He took two cards and cast them into the graveyard.

The two discarded dragons appeared on the field and their energy was instantly funnelled into Ryou. Spirit Ryou's attack strength shot up to 3000.

'Now, I'll only lose 400 life points while your Lily destroys my monster!' Kaiba declared as just that happened and his life points dropped down to 800.

'I don't know what kind of game you're playing, Mr. Kaiba,' Leichter said, 'but with only 800 life points left, you won't be playing it much longer! This duel's almost done.'

Yup. 'Behemoth, attack his Fairy now!' Kaiba ordered.

'No!' Leichter cried. 'I don't have enough life points to increase her strength!'

Exactly! Behemoth spat out fireballs from each mouth. The flames shot across the field. Fairy Lily screamed as she was destroyed. 'My plan worked,' Kaiba said. 'I forced you to give up 2000 life points last move so you couldn't power up your Fairy this move!'

Leichter's life points dropped down to 800 too. He started to visibly shake. 'My move. First I gain 500 life points thanks to Solemn Wishes.' His life points went up to 1300. 'Then another 350 thanks to Life-Absorbing Machine.' They went up further to 1650.

'Wait, Leichter,' Kaiba said. 'Don't forget to pay out 700 life points if you want to keep Imperial Order in effect.'

Leichter groaned. 'I can't afford to give up that much so I'll destroy it.' The card disappeared from the field.

Kaiba ignored the chattering from the other side of the gap. It was much more fun to mock the old man. 'Leichter, how did you ever think you could run KaibaCorp if you can't control the numbers in a simple game of Duel Monsters?'

'Silence!' Leichter snapped. 'I'm not done yet! I summon a monster in defence mode!' He set the card and it appeared on the field, face-down. 'Then command my Satellite Cannon to attack your behemoth!'

This time Kaiba was prepared for the blast to come down and destroy his monster.

'I'm so sorry I had to ruin your good mood, Mr. Kaiba.'

Kaiba lowered the arm he'd used to shield his face. 'Don't worry.' He drew. Not bad. He added the card to his hand and took another one. 'First, I'll activate my Pot of Greed card!' He played the card. 'This allows me to draw two more cards!' He quickly took the two cards in question. Adding them to his hand, he took his initial drawn card. 'And then, I'll summon the monster Possessed Dark Soul!' The card appeared on the field and the monster emerged from within. 'Now, Dark Soul, attack Leichter's face-down monster!'

With a snarl, his Dark Soul attacked.

'Stop right there! Reveal Dream Sprite!' Leichter's monster appeared above the card, still crouched in defence mode. 'Attacking this activated its special power. It can redirect your attack to any of my other monsters. Just watch, Mr. Kaiba.' Dark Soul's attack bounced off of her and reflected upwards to the sky. 'I'll transfer your attack to my Satellite Cannon.'

Kaiba watched it go up and then closed his eyes. Okay. New plan.

'I'm untouchable!' Leichter crowed. 'Just one more turn and my Satellite Cannon's attack points will be raised to 2000, enough to wipe out your remaining life points, Mr. Kaiba. I'll take a life point boost from my trap card,' his life points shot up to 2150, 'and end my turn.'

The gauge flicked up.

That meant this was his last draw. 'I'll take down your little space cannon.'

'Good luck!' Leichter sneered. 'Most monsters could never reach that high.'

He knew which monster could do it. Kaiba looked down at his deck. It all comes down to this next draw. 'This is it.' With a heavy gut, Kaiba drew. 'Ah!' Bingo! 'And now behold, my ultimate creature!'

'What is it?' Leichter demanded.

'You'll see.' Kaiba set a card. 'But first I'll place this in defence mode.' The card appeared on the field in front of him. 'Now, my Deck Master, show your special ability!' The Lord of Dragons immediately began to glow. 'At a cost of 500 of my life points, Lord of Dragons allows me to summon any dragon from my hand.' His life points dropped down to 300. 'Now I'll sacrifice both of my monsters!' They both immediately began to dissolve.

'What do you think you're doing, Mr. Kaiba?' Leichter demanded.

'You're about to find out!' Kaiba slapped the card onto his duel disk. 'I summon the Blue Eyes White Dragon!'

In a flash of bright light, the Blue Eyes White Dragon came onto the field and gave a mighty roar.

Kaiba pointed up to the skies. 'There's your target! Go, Blue Eyes!'

With a second roar, his Blue Eyes took off for the skies.

'Take down his Satellite Cannon now!' Kaiba ordered.

Leichter broke into a sweat. 'No! Do you have any idea what this means?'

'I know exactly what it means, Leichter,' Kaiba said as his dragon punched through the clouds. 'This duel's over! I know your Satellite Cannon only has attack points when it's about to attack. Otherwise it has an attack power of…0.'

'No!' Leichter yelled.

'That means once I attack, you lose everything!' Kaiba swore he could hear the roar of his favourite dragon. Attack now, my Blue Eyes. Wipe it out of the sky! 'You should have known better than to challenge me! Now, my Blue Eyes! Finish him off with White Lightning attack!'

There was a massive explosion above the Earth, visible even from the clouds. The debris from the Satellite Cannon began to fall in an imitation of shooting starts.

'Looks like you won't be leaving Cyberspace anytime soon,' Kaiba observed.

'No…!' Leichter shook as his borrowed body smoked and his life points dropped down to 0. 'I was so close to finally escaping from this digital dungeon!' He collapsed onto his knees as the duelling field cleared.

Kaiba ran over. 'Where's Mokuba?' he demanded.

Leichter looked up at him in what Kaiba supposed was supposed to be a glare. 'You'll never see your brother again, Mr. Kaiba! However, I'll be back!' He digitised and floated up into the air.

Kaiba stared down at the spot where Leichter had been a moment before. 'Mokuba…' He looked up. 'I'm coming, Mokuba!'

But he had no idea where to look.

New Haven, CT, USA

Shauna watched Mokuba jump up.

'I knew Seto'd beat that creep!'

Noah stared in honest-to-God shock. 'Mokuba, how can you still be on your brother's side? He betrayed you to control KaibaCorp!'

Mokuba gave him a hard look. 'I would stand by my brother no matter what! We're family, and nothing's gonna separate us! Nothing!'

Noah's face turned angry but…there was something else in it.

It took Shauna a moment to recognise what it was.

Envy.