Brothers in Arms Part I
'Hey!' Tristan yelled and Joey shook him by the robot monkey's feet. 'Hands off the merchandise, man! What do you think you're doing? If you think robot monkeys can't barf, you're wrong!'
'Tristan, just calm down,' Joey told him as he stopped shaking him. 'This could be the only way to save us from this place.'
Sharee and Yugi had both swapped back. Duke was visibly chuckling at the whole ordeal. While it was amusing to look at, Sharee bit her lip to keep from laughing aloud. Téa was smiling in an indulgent way and Yugi was looking like he wasn't sure how to take it. Serenity looked more concerned.
'Torturing me is gonna save us?' Tristan demanded.
'Look, man,' Joey said. 'You may hold the secret to escaping from Noah's virtual world.'
'What is that supposed to mean?' Tristan demanded.
Duke, at least, explained. 'We figure since your robot body was designed by Noah, it may hold some clues about how to get outta here.' He walked over.
Joey started shaking him again. 'So cough up some answers, baboon-boy!'
Duke knelt down and started checking the robot for anything useful.
'Stop grabbing!' Tristan insisted. 'There's nothing—' A set of small doors in his back suddenly flicked open.
'Hey!' Joey exclaimed. 'Check it out. It's a secret compartment.' He let go of one of the legs and pressed one of the numbered buttons. 'Let's try this.'
Tristan's robotic shell suddenly leapt out of his hands. It compacted and he came to settle on the ground. 'What's going on?' And off he went. It was like there was a kid with a remote, and he was the toy car. He circled round and round Joey and Duke at a high speed. And he clearly didn't like the sensation. 'Somebody stop meeeeee!'
'Let me handle this, okay?' Duke quickly leaned down and scooped Tristan up. He immediately turned to the pad inside. 'Two's my lucky number.' He hit another button.
'Something tells me it's not mine!' At that moment, propeller blades came out of Tristan's head and he lifted up out of Duke's hands. For a moment, he hovered like that. 'Hey, this isn't so bad…' Then he began wildly shooting through the air, like someone super-charged a remote controlled helicopter and was trying to play with it.
Sharee ducked out of the way as he came over and he suddenly spun instead of the propellers. Of course, he crashed to the ground.
'Monkey sleep now…' Tristan muttered.
'That didn't work,' Joey remarked. 'Maybe there's some kinda code.'
Yugi crouched down. 'Hey, guys. Maybe this red button is the one.' He pressed the button.
The doors closed shut and Yugi had to quickly yank his hand back. Tristan's robotic face suddenly turned red and he immediately got up. A general computer voice came from the robot. 'Initiating Emergency Primate Escape Sequence.'
That sounds promising, Sharee thought.
'I think we hit the jackpot,' Yugi echoed her sentiments.
A red light was projected out from his eyes.
'It's projecting something!' Yugi observed.
'Activating Virtual Destination Matrix.' A door appeared in front of them. And it slowly opened. 'Pathway revealed. Program complete.'
The white light that always accompanied these doors opened.
'What's that?' Téa asked.
Sharee squinted. 'It looks like KaibaLand…but better.'
YGO
Kaiba strode towards the train platform. Noah may have tried his best to recreate my Duel Monsters theme park. But it's obvious that this is just a virtual rip-off.
The door opened and Kaiba stepped through onto the platform.
A bright light shone down the tunnel, drawing Kaiba's attention, and he heard a train horn.
'Blue Eyes White Train approaching the platform,' the automated voice said from above. 'Stand behind the white line and, please, let all passengers off the vehicle before boarding.' The train stopped in front of him and the door opened. 'Welcome to KaibaLand. Please, watch your step.'
Kaiba smirked. 'At least he got this right.' He stepped onto the train.
'Step in and stand clear of the closing doors.'
Kaiba leaned against the far train wall. As he folded his arms, his duel disk vibrated. Obviously, Shauna didn't want Noah to know about the message that she was sending to him. It was the perfect time to send it, then, if Noah was watching (and there was a good bet he was). Looking down, Kaiba saw a message roll across his duel disk's screen.
NOAH HAS HYPNOTISED MOKUBA.
Kaiba scowled and ground his teeth. This train better lead me to Mokuba.
Then he heard the absolute last voice he wanted to hear right now. 'May I have your attention please.' Kaiba looked over. 'All passengers who have stolen family empires from their rightful owners listen carefully.'
'Noah,' Kaiba snarled.
'Prepare to exit at the next stop,' Noah said.
YGO
The group looked around KaibaLand.
'Looks a bit different,' Sharee mused. 'I guess Kaiba's planning on adding to the one back home.'
'Remind me never to waste my money here,' Joey remarked.
'You said that when the first one opened,' Téa reminded him.
Serenity looked around. 'Hey! Where is Tristan?'
Tristan was currently rolling into one of the buildings.
'Look!' Joey exclaimed. 'There he goes.'
'Follow him!' Yugi cried.
The whole group took off running after him.
'Slow down, will you, robo-chimp?' Joey yelled.
As they entered, said chimp turned around. 'Halt! Intruder alert! Intruder alert! Unauthorised personnel are forbidden to enter!'
Which means this is definitely a good direction to go in! Sharee thought.
'And just how are you gonna stop us, you little metal twerp!' Joey ran ahead.
The monkey jumped at him. But it was tiny and light and Joey easily knocked it aside.
Judging from that yell, he also knocked Tristan back into consciousness.
YGO
'Attention, you fool,' Noah sneered over the PA, 'we are now leaving KaibaLand.'
The train came out into an area that looked like a fire-based boss level straight out of a corny video game.
'Welcome to your final destination,' Noah said. 'For eternity! And don't mind the lava pits below. The molten rock is only 2000 degrees.'
Kaiba spotted Noah standing on an upraised rock, smug smirk on his face and his hands shovelled into his pockets. The train came to a stop just next to another chunk of rock a little ways across for him. Clearly he intended to challenge him to a duel and this was the field he'd chosen.
But how would Mokuba play into that?
Kaiba was afraid to find out.
Stepping out onto the rock, he ignored Noah.
'Please watch your step while exiting,' the other boy sneered. 'I wouldn't want you to burn to smithereens before our duel.'
The train took off again and vanished through a portal.
'Look!' Kaiba snapped. 'I want my brother back right now, you cowardly little runt!'
'He's my brother,' Noah sneered.
Rage boiled in Kaiba's gut. 'Noah, watch what you say.'
'Mokuba hates you!' Noah boasted. 'He'll be much better off when I scatter your mind throughout cyberspace!' He spread his arms. 'The heat is on, Seto – literally! And it's time for me to do what I've been waiting to do for years! Prove to myself, and prove to my father, that I am superior to you in every single way, Seto.'
That kid was doomed to fail. Gozaboro was too narcissistic to ever be impressed by anyone else. 'If you're so great, why am I the President of KaibaCorp?'
The obvious answer was that Noah was dead.
'Because of an unfortunate twist of fate that never should have happened!' Noah snapped with a nasty grin. 'But I'm about to correct that mistake! Gozaboro Kaiba is my father, not yours! And he always intended to pass his company onto me!'
Kaiba smirked and turned his head away. 'Keep dreaming, kid.'
'It's all true!' Noah snapped.
'Oh, that I don't doubt,' Kaiba said. 'Shauna gave me the proof of that. You are Gozaboro's biological son. I know that. But the fact is that you died. You got hit by a car, and you died. You are a dead child whose mind is trapped in a virtual world.' His eyes narrowed. 'I saw your home movies!'
Noah gasped, shocked.
'And you owe me some answers!'
YGO
The gang watched the film reel.
'What's this?' Yugi asked.
'At a guess,' Sharee chewed her thumbnail nervously, 'someone recorded either Noah's funeral or his memorial.'
'Are you sure?' Joey asked.
'Why would you record something like that?' Téa wondered.
'I dunno,' Yugi said. 'They look…pretty upset.'
'Wouldn't you be if your son was hit by a car?' Sharee asked, folding her arms tightly across her chest.
'If I'm going to save him, we have to act fast!' Gozaboro Kaiba insisted on the film.
'Save him?' Téa asked. 'You hear that? It sounds to me like Noah was in some sort of an accident.'
'Yeah,' Shauna said from above. 'A car accident. He was hit – head-on.'
Sharee frowned. 'No kid could survive that. How did he expect to save him?'
YGO
Kaiba had to say, Noah recovered himself quickly.
'You want the truth, Seto?' Noah chuckled. 'Are you sure you can handle the truth?' He closed his eyes. 'Well, you won't be here much longer anyway so what's the harm?' With that decided, he opened his eyes again. 'It's true. I died years ago when I was hit by a car and sustained fatal injuries to my physical body. In fact, this isn't really me.' He cast his eyes upwards. 'The real Noah is up there.'
'Huh?' Kaiba lifted his eyes to the sky.
'Behold, your true step-brother!' A glowing mechanical orb lowered down through the clouds.
What was that? 'Explain yourself!'
Noah chuckled. 'That metal sphere above us is a shell, which protects and nourishes my living brain.'
YGO
Sharee peered through a doorway, but she found nothing.
'Hey, guys!' Tristan called from down the hall. 'I found something! Check it out!'
The group turned and ran down the hall. They came into a room with a set of…
'Train tracks!' Tristan exclaimed.
They walked in and looked around.
'Don't tell me you guys are thinking of following those tracks!' Téa exclaimed.
'Got any other ideas?' Tristan asked. 'We have to find Kaiba and Mokuba, get my body back, and get outta here. So come on!' He jumped down onto the tracks.
Heaving a sigh, Sharee hopped down after him.
'Let's go,' Yugi said.
'Maybe we could just wait for the next train,' Téa suggested.
'Hey!' Sharee suddenly exclaimed as she and Tristan climbed up onto a rudimentary handcar. 'Look what we found.' She grabbed the lever and pumped it to move the car over to their friends. 'Hop on, and somebody get the other side.'
Moments later, they were all either sitting or standing on the handcar as they went as fast as it would go, with Joey and Duke working it. Sharee did not like the speed they were going at. And, judging from the sounds around her, she'd say her friends shared that viewpoint.
'Uh…' Yugi tried. 'What do you say we slow down a bit?'
Tristan was feeling reckless today apparently. 'Are you kidding me? Speed it up, you wimps!'
'Easy for you to say Mr. My-Arms-Are-Too-Short-To-Drive!' Joey snapped.
'I hope,' Sharee snapped, 'that when we all fall off of this, you're at the bottom of the pile!'
'You do know where the brakes are, right?' Téa demanded.
Sharee looked around and her eyes widened. 'There are no brakes!'
Everyone screamed as they went careening forwards.
YGO
'Did you say your brain's up there?' Kaiba demanded.
'That's right,' Noah said. 'It's hardwired to a computer that projects a virtual image of me. But things weren't always that way.' His eyes narrowed. 'I used to be a normal kid. A normal kid who had everything. As the only child of a multi-billionaire, I was afforded every luxury known to man. My father's servants waited on me, hand and foot. I was groomed for success from the time I could walk. Mathematicians and scientists from around the globe lined up for the chance to teach me, the son of the world's most powerful man.'
Well, he certainly had Gozaboro's ego.
Noah went on. 'Musicians, champion athletes, they were all lured to our front door by my father, Gozaboro Kaiba, with the sole purpose of raising me into an educated, well-rounded future President of KaibaCorp. So you see, Seto, it was me who was destined to run my father's company. Not you. And I would have, had it not been for a freak accident. What happened to me is of little importance. The point is my body was rendered useless, but my mind was still sharp as ever. So my father used his company's cutting edge technology to save me. He linked my mind to a central computer, transforming my brainwaves into electromagnetic pulses. Every thought pattern, every memory, every bit of knowledge was digitised and downloaded into my father's mainframe computer. It was the end of my former life as a human. And the beginning of my new life as a virtual being whose power is limitless!'
Kaiba said nothing, despite the smart comment sitting on his tongue.
'Soon after that,' Noah said, 'you came along. Originally, father adopted you to motivate and challenge me, as part of my training to take over KaibaCorp but that was no longer possible. Although I was extremely powerful in cyberspace, with no body of my own I couldn't serve as the future President of my father's company. Until now! So you see, Seto, I'm not human anymore.' He said the word like it was dirty. 'I exist only as a digital file in a supercomputer built by my father. But as soon as I defeat you in a duel, proving once and for all that I should be running KaibaCorp, I'll upload my mind into your body. Then I'll fulfil my father's wishes by taking over the company.'
Kaiba laughed. While he did intermingle duelling and running his company, the two really had nothing to do with each other – except for the strategy factor. Hell! Yugi was his only real challenger and he wouldn't survive five seconds in a boardroom. That was two very different sets of skills. The kid was delusional, in more ways than one. He'd be eaten alive if he ever set foot in the real world again.
Kaiba composed himself. 'The only thing more ridiculous than that statement is the thought of you outdueling me.'
'Then let's go,' Noah said. 'What better way to prove my power over you than by defeating you at your own pathetic game, Seto.'
Rage turned in his gut again. 'I've heard enough!' Kaiba snapped. From the look on his face, he hadn't been expecting that. Kaiba didn't care. 'Is that clear? I rebuilt KaibaCorp from the ground up, on my own terms with no help at all! That company is what it is because of me! No one else could run it, especially not some kid!'
'Really?' Noah demanded.
Some lava spat up. Kaiba instinctively flinched back. When the lava came back down, Kaiba stated, 'I'll show you real power. Let's go!'
'All right,' Noah said. 'Then choose your cards, Seto.'
'I already have!' Kaiba snapped. He activated the duel disk on his arm. 'And I've already chosen my Deck Master.' He raised his deck. 'Say hello to my friend, Kaiser Seahorse!' The monster in question appeared at his side.
'You have no idea how long I've been waiting for this, Seto.' Noah raised his arm and his duel disk appeared on it, and activated. 'Time to lose it all.' He slid his deck into the slot.
They both glared across at each other. 'Let's duel!'
'I'll go first. And now,' Kaiba drew, 'behold!' He set his card and it appeared on the field. 'I summon Giant Germ in attack mode!' The monster emerged from the card. 'Then I'll position this card, face-down.' He set the card. It appeared on the field.
His first mistake was taking Mokuba, Kaiba thought angrily. His second was challenging me to a duel. With my face-down Crush Card on the field, he's finished! When he attacks my Giant Germ, my Crush Card's power will activate, destroying ever monster card in his hand and deck with 1500 attack points or more.
'Let's see what you've got, step-brother,' Kaiba sneered.
'With pleasure, Seto, so stand back.' Noah drew.
'This should be amusing,' Kaiba mused to himself.
Noah took a card from his hand and set it. 'I summon Chiron the Mage!' The card appeared on the field and the monster emerged from within.
YGO
Sharee was the first one who managed to stop screaming as they sailed down the tracks. The sound was actually grating on her the longer it went on. And her head started to throb again. She was hoping they'd just coast to a stop. Although, with how things had gone around here so far she wasn't going to bet on it. Around her, the others gradually, and thankfully, ran out of "scream".
'I think I left my stomach back at that last turn!' Téa managed to remark.
They suddenly had an exit right in front of them and coming up fast. Then they went flying off the tracks and landed hard in a pile on a clump of rock. With sweat already starting to bead up, Sharee pushed herself up and looked around. For a moment, she ignored Kaiba and Noah duelling just a little ways off.
'Is everyone all right?' Yugi asked.
'Define "all right",' Joey responded.
'Man,' Sharee said. 'I've played The Floor is Lava before, but this is ridiculous.'
'What?' Téa asked.
'Well,' Sharee said. 'Don't look now, but we're on a rock surrounded by lava.'
With worried sounds her friends pushed themselves up and looked around. Still, there was something about this particular formation that bothered her. She hadn't seen many volcanos – none, in fact. Still, she was pretty sure that the lava pits of them did not resemble lakes of any kind as this one did.
'Hey, look!' Yugi exclaimed as he spotted Kaiba.
'Where are we?' Serenity asked.
'Beats me,' Téa said.
'Yes, I had noticed him, Yugi.' It suddenly hit Sharee. She clicked. 'That's it! This isn't a volcano! It's an interpretation of the Earth back when the molten core was cooling and giving the planet its first layer of solid earth! Um…' She thought for a moment. 'Over 4 billion years ago but no one knows precisely when.'
'Interpretation?' Noah demanded, turning his attention away from his duel with Kaiba.
Sharee turned and glared at him. 'Yes, interpretation! No one knows what it looked like, but this is the general accepted guess! On top of that, if this was real, we'd all be dead! Earth, at this point, had no breathable atmosphere!' She took a deep breath. 'Now get on with your duel, kid!'
'Kaiba, be careful!' Yugi called.
Kaiba turned. 'Yugi?'
YGO
'Looks like your fan club are here,' Noah sneered with a look like he had a case of sour grapes. 'And they came just in time to witness your last duel, Seto. And my rebirth into the real world as the new leader of KaibaCorp.'
Kaiba looked back at him with a scowl.
'Let's continue,' Noah said. 'Behold, the power of my Mage and his Mirror of Truth!' The Mirror appeared on the Mage's arm, looking more like a shield than a mirror. 'Nothing can remain hidden from me now, for the Mirror of Truth reveals your face-down card and destroys it as well.' Noah smirked. 'Now, let's see what you tried to hide.'
Kaiba's card was reflected in the mirror and then it was revealed. 'Oh, no!' The card at his feet shattered and he flinched back.
'Your Crush Card is gone,' Noah sneered, 'now watch this. Attack, my Mage! Destroy his Giant Germ!' The Mage struck.
The Giant Germ was destroyed. Kaiba's life points dropped to 3200. 'Giant Germ, return to me now!' The monster reassembled on his side of the field. 'It's back, and you lose 500 life points.'
A very annoyed-looking Noah's life points dropped to 3500. 'I'm not too worried. Your card's weak.'
'That may be,' Kaiba said, 'but what makes you think I brought it back to attack you? Watch and learn.' He drew. 'I sacrifice my Giant Germ,' the monster dissolved again, 'in order to summon my Vampire Lord!' The Vampire Lord appeared on the field. 'Now, my creature of darkness, attack his Chiron the Mage!'
The Vampire Lord flung open his cape and a swarm of bats flew out. They swarmed over the Mage and he was destroyed. Noah's life points dropped to 3300.
'And that's not all,' Kaiba said as his Vampire Lord swept the bats back into his cape. 'Thanks to his special ability, every time my vampire sucks away some of your life points, he forces you to send one of your cards directly to the graveyard. So say goodbye to another monster card, Noah! At this rate, your deck will be empty in no time.'
Noah took his Giant Soldier of Stone and showed it to Kaiba before discarding it. 'I doubt that. I'm afraid that fanged freak of yours is about to take his own trip to the card graveyard now.'
'But you have no monsters!' Kaiba snapped.
Noah drew. 'I never said anything about using a monster.' He took a card from his hand and set it on the field. 'I'll destroy him with this: the magic card, Fissure!'
The ground gave out under his Vampire Lord's feet. He fell right into the lava.
'Adios, bat-boy!' Noah gloated. He set another card on the field. 'And now that you're defenceless, I'll play this!' His monster appeared on the field. 'Go, my Aeris! Attack Seto's life points!'
Kaiba drew back and lifted his arm to physically guard himself. The spear hit his duel disk and electricity crackled around him. He was pushed back. Kaiba's life points dropped to 1400.
'Surrender now while you have the chance,' Noah said.
'Don't give up, Kaiba!' Yugi yelled.
'I'll place one card, face-down.' Noah set the card and it appeared in front of him.
'You'll never get away with this, Noah!' Kaiba snapped. 'I'd rather see my company crumbled to the ground than fall into your grubby little hands! KaibaCorp is mine! You got that, punk?'
'You stole it!' Noah snapped. 'I'm just taking back what belongs to me.'
'You are dead!' Sharee yelled.
Kaiba smirked. 'Keep dreaming, kid. Okay then.' He drew. 'I think you might remember my old friend, Vampire Lord.' A coffin rose up out of the lava and came to a stop in front of Kaiba. The coffin opened and the monster in question emerged from it. The coffin shattered. 'You look surprised. Don't you know about vampires? They can't be destroyed. My Vampire Lord possess the power of immortality, you fool. So when he's sent to the graveyard, he comes back. And there's more.' He lifted a card, and then he played it. 'I summon this!' The card appeared on the field and the monster emerged from within. 'Slate Warrior, in attack mode!'
'I can't be beat,' Noah arrogantly declared. 'We're in my world now, and I make the rules.'
'Listen,' Kaiba said. 'You may think that you created this virtual world, you punk, but all you did was rip off my system. Now, Vampire Lord attack!'
The Vampire Lord charged.
'I don't think so!' Noah snapped. 'Your Vampire has activated my trap card! So reveal the mighty Earthshaker!' The card flipped up. It lit up as its effect activated. 'Time for me to shake things up a bit!'
The ground shook and the lava began splashing up.
'Ah…' Kaiba drew back.
'Now, allow me to explain how this groundbreaking trap card of mine works in case you don't know,' Noah sneered. 'You have two kinds of creatures on the field: a wind monster and a dark monster. And one of those two monsters is about to be destroyed. But which one? That is up to you, Seto.'
So his trap card forces me to choose one of my own monsters to be destroyed. If I choose wind, I lose my Slate Warrior and if I choose dark, my Vampire's gone.
Noah was apparently impatient. 'Let's go!'
Kaiba had already decided how to tackle this. 'I choose my creature of darkness.'
'Earthshaker!' Noah barked. 'Swallow his Vampire Lord!'
A stream of lava shot up and engulfed the Vampire Lord. It shattered and the lava stream vanished. That was okay. He'd be back again next turn.
'Now it's time to say goodbye to your monster.' Kaiba gave the order. 'Slate Warrior, attack!' Slate Warrior charged and smashed through Aeris. 'Now you're completely defenceless.'
Noah's life points dropped to 2200. He drew. 'I was thinking, Seto, maybe you and I just got off on the wrong foot. Perhaps it's time to wash away our differences.'
Kaiba was instantly suspicious. After all, that little punk had started this. It wasn't like they had a chance encounter and just made bad first impressions on each other. Noah had likely been planning this for years. He was hardly going to give up on the whole thing for no reason now.
Noah pulled a card out of his hand. 'And this should help.' He set it and it appeared on the field. 'The magic card, Giant Flood!' The card lit up as it activated. 'I hope you packed a virtual swimsuit.'
The ground began to shake. Kaiba braced himself for the wave that he knew was coming. And then he saw the start of it on the horizon. He quickly did the math as he heard Yugi, Sharee, and the dork patrol reacting to it. Rightfully, it would be broken up when it hit Noah's rock. Seeing as they were all in a straight line, that should keep the rest of them from being struck.
Noah gloated before the wave hit. 'Time to drown out my competition!'
The wave crashed over Noah. Kaiba instinctively covered his face. The water splashed around him, cold and a sharp contrast to the heat levels of the lava. Kaiba grunted, but managed to keep his footing. The human reflex to shiver wracked his body before it adjusted.
As soon as the water lowered, Kaiba turned back to face Noah.
'Looks like your monster needs a life jacket,' Noah said.
Kaiba looked over. Slate Warrior had been swept up in the wave and he was being dragged towards a huge whirlpool that had formed. 'No! My Slate Warrior!'
That left him without any defences.
Then more monsters appeared. 'What's happening?' Kaiba demanded, watching them go. 'Every monster in my graveyard is getting washed away!'
'Now it's time for you to see what my Deck Master can do,' Noah said.
Kaiba narrowed his eyes. 'But you never picked a Deck Master.'
Noah gave him a huge nasty grin. 'Oh. Forgive me for being so rude.'
'Huh?' Kaiba looked past him. Suddenly, something began to move. It lifted out of the water, revealing itself to be the source of the whirlpool. As it rose up, water spilled off of it.
'Meet my Deck Masterrrrr!' Noah hollered. 'Shinato's Ark!'
And it was massive. 'That boat's your Deck Master?' Kaiba demanded.
Noah smirked. 'That's right. Now, Seto. My great Ark will allow me to sail away with everything you have: your company and your brother!'
