Mechanical Mayhem Part II

No matter how fast they ran, or where they went, they couldn't seem to find anything or anyone.

They did, however, hear Serenity's voice echo all around them.

'Noooo!' she screamed.

Téa and Yugi immediately looked up at Joey. He was staring straight ahead with a horror-stricken look. Yugi couldn't imagine how he must be feeling. His sister meant more to him than anything, and in this place she was a sitting duck. Sharee being with her was the only thing that softened the blow.

But why would Serenity be screaming like that?

'That sounded like Serenity!' Téa exclaimed.

'Joey?' Yugi said.

'What?' he snapped.

'We'll make sure she's okay.'

'Serenity!' he took off running again.

'Joey, wait!' Yugi called as he and Téa followed.

YGO

'I'm sorry to say that your friend will never be the same again,' Nezbitt bragged.

'No, Tristan…' Duke murmured.

Serenity sobbed. 'He's gone! This is all my fault! I'm so sorry.' Tears streamed down her cheeks.

'Hey, Serenity,' Duke said, 'don't say that.'

'How can this be your fault?' Mayet asked. 'If it's anyone's fault, it's his fault.' She pointed across at Nezbitt. 'He started the duel. He set the terms.'

Serenity just dropped lower and started crying in earnest.

'Yeah,' Duke said. 'It's not your fault. You gotta stay strong.'

It didn't seem to have any effect on her. 'He lost trying to protect me!' she insisted.

'How does it make it your fault?' Again, Mayet gestured at Nezbitt. 'You only needed protecting in the first place because of this bozo!'

Duke took a few steps towards her, only to be stopped by Nezbitt. 'Where do you think you're going?'

Duke glared at him. Serenity started.

'This duel isn't over,' Nezbitt said. 'And the Big 5 need all of your bodies. Now, it's the older female's turn.'

'Fine,' Mayet said as Serenity whimpered.

She looked across the field. He still had that Clockwork Night going. From the looks of it, it was a continuous trap. They had to either win despite it or get rid of it entirely. And I know exactly which card I need to pull it off. But do I have it in my hand? She didn't. She'd have to draw for it.

With the full belief that she'd get the card, Mayet drew. Beautiful. There it was. Mayet looked up at Nezbitt. 'I play one card face down.' She set the card and it appeared on the field in front of her. Now came the risky bit. 'Also, I'll sacrifice Kanan the Sword Mistress to summon this.' She pulled another card out and of her hand and set it.

Kanan the Sword Mistress in her robotic form vanished. In her place, a new monster emerged.

'Amphibian Beast?' Nezbitt asked. 'Nice try, but thanks to my Clockwork Night, he turns to metal and loses 500 attack points. It was a nice try, but there was really no point in that!' He laughed.

Oh, I ain't too worried about that. I'll just wait until you attack me and then activate my down card. That should negate your little power boost, and then Amphibian Beast will have more than enough attack points to wipe the floor with you.

YGO

Okay, either Sharee has the best poker face in the world, or she's planning something.

Duke watched Sharee's completely passive face as Nezbitt mocked her. The last time she'd had an expression like that…well, she pulled out Central Shield last time she made that expression. Duke decided that he could trust that Sharee had something up her sleeve. It probably had something to do with that down card she had.

And for it to work, she needed that high level monster.

YGO

Mayet looked over. 'Serenity? It's your turn.'

Serenity lifted her head and looked around wildly.

'You can do it, Serenity!' Duke insisted.

'What's wrong, my dear?' Nezbitt mocked her. 'Can't you duel without your friend, Tristan, standing beside you?'

Serenity dropped her hand and grasped it with both hands.

'Don't listen to this guy, Serenity!' Duke called to her.

'Too late for that,' Nezbitt crowed. 'I think she's already blown a fuse!'

'Sharee?' Duke asked.

'I don't think she can continue duelling,' Mayet said. 'She's too distraught and overwhelmed. Nezbitt,' she turned to their opponent, 'I make the motion that Serenity's current turn be skipped on the grounds of personal distress to the detriment of professional performance.'

Nezbitt started. 'How did you know that phrase?'

'Spend enough time around curators, professors, and archaeologists and you learn some pretty complex phrases,' Mayet said. 'Well, skip her turn? Just long enough for Serenity to pull herself together.'

'Terms accepted,' Nezbitt said before turning to Duke. 'Take your turn, boy.'

'Fine.' Duke drew. He looked at his card before he grabbed the card from his duel disk. 'I activate Dimensionhole!' He showed the card before playing it in active form on the field. The hole appeared in front of him. 'This magic card removes a monster from the field for one turn. And I'm using it on my own monster, Dark Assailant!'

The monster in question vanished into the hole.

'So your Machine King looses 100 attack points as my Dark Assailant is no longer on the field to give him extra power.' Just that happened. Duke took his other card. 'And it gets batter. Check out this magic card.'

'Play whatever you'd like,' Nezbitt said. 'There's absolutely nothing that can save you now.'

'Is that so?' Duke turned the card around. 'Not even this?'

'A Dice Dungeon magic card?' Nezbitt demanded.

'You don't know me,' Duke said, 'but let's just say I know a thing or two about dice. And now it's time for me to roll you right out of this duel.' He slid the card into the field slot of his duel disk. The card appeared on the field. 'Cause I'm changing this card game into a dice game! Now, I activate Dimension Dice and Dice Dungeon!' The two cards in front of him flipped up and activated. 'This transforms the playing field into a dice board.' The dice board took shape over the gap between them.

'What exactly do you plan to do with this dice game of yours?' Nezbitt demanded.

Mayet had a very good feeling she knew.

'You'll find out soon enough, Nezbitt,' Duke said. 'when my high-rolling sends you back to the junkyard.'

'I'm afraid you'll need a lot more than a few dice to dismantle a superhuman machine like myself,' Nezbitt claimed. 'So make your move.'

'For starters, I'll sacrifice Yaranzo and the 13th Grave.' They both shrank down into small white lights. 'This allows me to summon a superhuman creature of my own.' The two lights began swirling around each other and finally fused in a massive blast. 'Meet Orgoth the Relentless!'

Duke's most powerful monster stood on the field.

'Now, you no longer have those two monsters to give power to your machine king,' Duke gave him a thumbs down. 'Which means old tinfoil pants loses 200 more attack points.'

The Machine King's attack dropped to 3200.

'And now that that's out of the way, it's time to start our dice game. And this is how it's gonna work.' A single white die appeared on the field. 'We'll each pick a monster to step onto the dice board and we'll take turns rolling the die.'

'As you wish, foolish boy,' Nezbitt said. 'I'll choose my still-powerful Machine King.' The Machine King appeared on the field.

'And I'll place Orgoth on the board.' His monster moved into position. 'All right. I roll first!' The die lifted, spinning into the air. 'The die will determine my monster's strength.' It came down and landed on a six. Duke laughed. 'Oh, yeah! Six, baby! That roll doubled its attack points. Not bad at all. Let's see.' He quickly did the math. 'That gives Orgoth a total of 5000 points.' Orgoth's attack points went up. 'Time to see what Machine King's power will be.'

'Then commence dice roll.' The die spun up into the air again. When it came down, though, it did not have as favourable results.

'Ha!' Duke grinned. 'You rolled a measly one! That means Machine King loses 1000 attack points.'

'Are you making these regulations up as you go?' Nezbitt demanded as his monster lost those 1000 points.

'Check the rule book,' Duke said. 'Now the fun starts. Orgoth, prepare for assault!' Orgoth's eyes glowed and he brandished his sword. 'Now, attack his Machine King with Diamond Blade Strike! This one's for Tristan!' Orgoth brought his sword down on Machine King and the monster was utterly destroyed in a massive explosion. Orgoth dropped back and returned to his place in front of Duke. 'Goodbye, Machine King. Hello, Scrap Pile!'

Nezbitt's life points dropped to 1100.

'That's was pure luck. But your good fortune's about to run out.' Nezbitt drew and looked down at his cards. 'Excellent. Since I'm acting as my own Deck Master, I shall call myself to the field.' He stepped forward. 'Robotic Knight is now in play. Then I'll play a magic card known as Recycling Plant.' He set the card and the card appeared behind him. 'This allows me to revive one of my former monsters and fuse it together with myself.' He turned slightly and reached back. 'So, Machine King! Merge with me to form a new, unstoppable creature!'

A bright light exploded from his side of the field. Mayet and Duke were both forced to cover their eyes. Mayet heard Serenity cry out in alarm and fear, but there was nothing she could do about it. Nezbitt laughed, the first display of human emotion that Mayet had seen of him yet.

Then the light cleared.

'I am now more powerful than ever!'

Mayet looked over to see he was a hulking robotic monster, white and shining. He pushed his fists together and electricity crackled dangerously around them. Then he stood up tall. Part of her was worried, but she took the chance to hit a button on her duel disk. Duke, probably unintentionally, helped distract him from noticing.

'Hey! What have you done?'

Serenity looked up and gasped.

'I've merged with Machine King to form Perfect Machine King,' Nezbitt said.

'Don't worry about it, Serenity,' Duke said. He turned back to Nezbitt. 'He's just a bigger scrap heap.'

'You have no idea of the power I possess,' Nezbitt gloated. 'I gain an additional 100 points for every machine on the field!' But his attack points did not move as much as he was expecting. They only went up to 2800. 'What?'

Mayet let a chuckle escape her throat.

Serenity looked over at her in alarm.

Duke grinned at her.

'What did you do this time?' Nezbitt demanded.

'Oh, nothing much.' Mayet smirked at him. 'I just set this trap card on my last turn.' She flipped it up. 'False Trap. It negates all continuous traps on your side of the field.' She pointed over. 'And, last I checked, Clockwork Night was a continuous trap. This, of course, means that all of our monsters will be cured of their metallic skin conditions.' As she spoke their monster returned back to flesh. 'So…say bye-bye to your power boost.'

And say bye-bye to our original plan.

Yeah. Perfect Machine King outranks Amphibian Beast by 400 points. That's okay. I've got a back-up plan. Look what we've got in our hand.

Oh! But we've only got one monster.

Don't worry about that.

'But that doesn't stop me from destroying Orgoth the Relentless,' Nezbitt said. 'Now prepare to join Tristan as the next victims of the Big 5. For when I wipe you out, all of your bodies will belong to us! And we can finally escape to the real world.'

'Our dice game is still on,' Duke said. 'So roll if you're gonna attack me.'

'Very well.' Nezbitt rolled. The die spun into the air. When it landed, it didn't land well for them. 'Yes! A four. That must be good.'

Duke rebutted him. 'Sorry to disappoint you but rolling a four cuts your monster's attack down to 2000.'

'What?' Nezbitt demanded. 'There's no logic to this dice game at all!' Even so, his attack points dropped down to 2000. 'Go ahead and roll.'

'My die has been good to me so far.' Duke rolled. 'So let's see if my luck continues.' But it didn't.

'I guess not,' Nezbitt remarked.

'One?' Duke demanded. 'That means my monster loses 1000 attack points.' Orgoth's attack dropped down to 1500.

'And now your Orgoth is even weaker,' the hatches on Nezbitt's shoulders opened up. 'I can blast it away with ease.' Two sets of missile launchers were shot out. 'And my remaining missiles will blow a chunk out of your life points.'

One of them struck Orgoth. He was destroyed in a massive explosion. The second wave went past him and right at Duke. He made a worried sound as he stepped back. The missiles hit. He managed to keep his response down to a minimum but he still grunted as he staggered in the smoke and collapsed to his knees. Serenity remained cringed on the ground.

'So much for your dice-rolling talents,' Nezbitt crowed. 'With Orgoth gone, so goes your dice field.' The grin between them vanished.

'That's not good,' Duke said. 'Even my best monster couldn't beat him.' He looked over. 'Sharee, tell me you've got something!'

'Yes,' she said. 'But I will need to use your Dark Assailant.'

'I told you,' Nezbitt said. 'No discussing strategies.'

'We're not.' Mayet gave him a smirk. 'He has no idea what I want to do with his Dark Assailant. I'm just asking to use it.'

Nezbitt growled. 'Soon myself and the rest of the Big 5 will return to the life we once knew. Except, this time, we won't have to work under Seto Kaiba.'

Mayet blinked. 'I sense a story.'

YGO

Kaiba and Mokuba walked towards the recreation of the lab.

Destroying Nezbitt's research laboratory was the smartest decision I've ever made, Kaiba mused to himself. He'd blown it up. Sure Nezbitt hadn't been happy, and he whined about it, but who cared about that? It was Kaiba's company and he had decided, long ago, that they wouldn't be making weapons anymore.

So, Nezbitt's lab had to go.

YGO

Mayet blinked at him for a minute.

'Okay,' she finally said. 'You're cranky because Kaiba blew up your lab. Were there any people in the lab at the time?'

'He took my staff too.'

'So, that's a no,' Mayet said. 'So, what's the problem? The company changed hands and the new CEO decided to abandon weapons in favour of games. So what? That happens. If you wanted to keep making weapons, then you should have gone and gotten another job in a company that still does that. Gods know having "KaibaCorp" on your resume would make you hot property.'

'I spent months developing cutting-edge gaming software for Seto Kaiba, and I hated every second of it,' Nezbitt snarled. 'I joined KaibaCorp to build tanks, submarines, and missiles.'

Mayet shrugged. 'So, again, get a new job. Don't try to kill a teenager.'

'Take your turn,' he snarled.

Joey's voice suddenly cut through the room. 'Serenity!'

Everyone looked up towards a door and platform overhead.

That's what I thought.

Serenity stumbled to her feet. 'Joey!'

New Haven, CT, USA

'Got it!' Shauna grinned as she finally seized full control. 'Now, what did I miss?' She quickly scanned. 'Uh oh.'

'What happened?' her mother asked from behind her.

'They got Tristan,' Shauna said. 'His body's been seized.'

'How would that even work?' her mother asked. 'Didn't Mayet say she could only use Sharee's body because of something to do with her genetic make-up?'

Shauna's eyes widened. 'Mom, you're a genius!'

'I am?'

'Sure. But first I gotta get Yugi, Téa, and Joey back with Sharee, Duke, and Serenity.'

Virtual World

Yugi followed Joey through the caves.

'Does Joey even have the slightest idea of where he's going, Yugi?' Téa asked as she struggled to keep up.

'I doubt it!' Yugi responded. 'But, at this point, his guess is as good as mine.'

'Hey!' Joey called back. 'Check it out! Serenity!'

'Joey!' They heard her call back.

Joey ran faster and through the opening. He caught himself on the railing.

'Where are we?' Yugi asked.

'I think,' that was Mayet talking rather than Sharee, and she drew their attention down, 'it's meant to be a recreation of the place they dragged the blimp into.'

'Serenity!' Joey cried out. 'Up here!'

Yugi and Téa looked over the edge as Serenity looked up at her brother. Yugi took in the duelling field between them. Their side was lined with monsters. From the fact that all were in attack mode, they'd mode likely been forced into that. There was a face-down card evidently belonging to no one.

Mayet also had a face-down card on the field, as well as the strongest monster on their side, Amphibian Beast.

Serenity looked up. 'It's really you?'

'Of course,' Joey called down. 'Who'd you expect?'

Mayet turned her head. 'I see you found us.'

'Yugi!' Duke had never looked more relieved. 'Téa!'

'Hey, Duke,' Yugi said.

'It's good to see you,' Téa said.

The guy across the field spoke up, drawing their glares. 'Sorry to interrupt this touching reunion, but I have duel to win and a virtual world to escape.'

'Just what we thought!' Yugi exclaimed.

'Right, Yug!' Joey quickly agreed. 'He must be one of the Big 5!'

'Hey,' Téa called. 'Where's Tristan?'

From the looks on their faces down there, Yugi didn't think he'd like the answer.

'Yeah,' Joey said. 'Wasn't he with you?'

Duke dropped his eyes. 'Tristan…is gone. He lost.'

'Oh, no!' Yugi gasped.

'He lost?' Téa demanded.

Beside him, Joey murmured. 'Hold on. That's means…oh, no.'

'Tristan…' Téa fell down to her knees.

'Téa, could you do me a teeny-tiny little favour?' Mayet called from below. 'Don't break down. Serenity's already broken down. I don't blame her. I get it, but I can't handle more than one person breaking down within five minutes.'

'We'll find a way to get Tristan's body back later,' Yugi decided. 'Whose move is it?'

'Mine.' Mayet drew.

Duke looked at her. 'If you need my Dark Assailant, go ahead and use him.'

'Take him, Mayet!' Joey called. 'That twin-plated twisted creep is gonna be strutting around in Tristan's body? No way! Come on!'

'He tried his best…' Serenity broke down crying. 'He was only trying to protect me! And now we may never get him back!'

'And I've told you that's not your fault,' Mayet said.

Yugi and Joey looked at each other.

'Oh, man…' Joey murmured.

'Mayet?' Yugi called. 'Do you guys need help?'

'No.' Mayet lifted her eyes and looked across the field. 'I think I'm about to end this duel.'

'Bold words, little girl,' Nezbitt mocked her. 'But can you back it up with action?'

Mayet smirked. 'I'll start by sacrificing my Amphibian Beast and Duke's Dark Assailant,' the two monsters dissolved in front of the two duellists, 'in order to summon the most powerful monster in my deck.' She took the card from her hand and set it on the duel disk.

With a bright flash, a duel monster took form.

'I play the Cosmo Queen in attack mode!' Mayet folded her arms. 'Like I said, I'm going to finish this duel now, so I think I'll juice her up a bit with this magic card,' the down card in front of her flipped up, 'Amulet of Ambition!'

'Huh?' Téa looked at Yugi.

'The Amulet of Ambition raises a monster's attack points by 500 points,' Yugi said.

The Amulet appeared around the Cosmo Queen's neck are her attack points went from 2900 to 3400. Mayet seemed to regard her for a moment. 'You know what? I don't think that's quite enough.'

'Not quite enough?' the Big 5 member demanded from the other side of the field, his voice carrying a very clear panicked tone.

'Yes,' Mayet said. 'See, you took out Tristan by destroying his Deck Master and wiping out his life points, Nezbitt. If I destroy you like this, I'll only wipe out your Deck Master. I want your life points too.'

'Well, too bad you have nothing in your hand that could lift your Cosmo Queen's attack points any further,' Nezbitt said.

'Whoever said anything about my hand?' Mayet then jerked her thumb over her shoulder at her Deck Master. 'I was talking about her. You see, the Dark Witch has the ability to transfer the entirety of her attack points either to another monster or onto my life points.'

'How'd you find that out?' Duke asked, sounding impressed.

'That device I had earlier,' she said. 'It was a gift from my sister; a somewhat subtle way for me to look through the Deck Master special abilities of each monster. I picked Dark Witch and she's the one I remember, because I saw that as the best ability in my deck.' She smirked at Nezbitt. 'And now I'm going to have my Dark Witch add her attack points onto my Cosmo Queen's.'

Behind her, the Dark Witch pushed her hands out with her fingers splayed.

Cosmo Queen's attack points flew all the way up to 5200.

Mayet grinned. 'I'll admit it. This is just a revenge kick. I'm gonna do to you exactly what you did to Tristan.' She called out the order. 'Cosmo Queen, destroy his Deck Master and wipe out the last of his life points!'

If a machine could have facial expressions, Yugi betted that Nezbitt's eyes would be wide and his face would be pale, jaw hanging open. The Cosmo Queen raised her hands. A bright light formed between them. Pushing her hands out, the light exploded into an energy beam that cross the field and headed straight for Nezbitt.

'Noooo!' he howled as he was destroyed. His life points dropped to 0.

'Since Perfect Machine King was the Deck Master, he automatically loses the duel!' Yugi declared.

'Yeah!' Joey pumped his fist. 'Way to go, Mayet!'

'You fools!' Nezbitt snapped. 'I may be going offline, but I won Tristan's body!'

'No!' Téa cried.

'Let him go, you creep!' Joey yelled.

'You can't do this!' Yugi called down.

'Negative,' Nezbitt said. 'He's my ticket out of this virtual prison. I'm finally free!'

'Then we'll just win it back,' Mayet answered him.

'You're welcome to try!' Nezbitt laughed as his Deck Master was destroyed.

The monsters all faded off of the field.

Duke dropped to his knees. 'That mechanical snake-in-the-grass.'

Joey was the first to bolt down, making a beeline for his sister. He took the fast way down, jumping over railings and down onto crates. As soon as he got over to her, she turned into him and the two of them hugged each other tight. Yugi and Téa elected to just use the stairs.

Mayet swapped back over. Don't ask Yugi how he knew that. He just did. Sharee walked over to give Duke a hand-up. He was still struggling to keep his feet under him though, so Yugi and Téa rushed over to help him.

'Joey!' Serenity sobbed as they helped Duke move over to the Wheeler siblings. 'We won the match! Why didn't that bring Tristan back?'

'We'll find him,' Duke said.

'Well,' Sharee said. 'The first thing we've got to do is find out where they've put his mind.'

'Nezbitt said it was digitised,' Duke said.

Sharee shook her head. 'A human mind is not a computer program. I think they would have had to put it somewhere else while they took over his body.'

'You really think so?' Serenity asked.

'I hope so.'

I hope so too, Yugi thought. They took Tristan's body but his mind must be here somewhere!

New Haven, CT, USA

Shauna finished installing her firewall and clapped in delight.

'All right,' she said. 'That's done. Let's find Tristan.' She scanned for a moment.

As she did, the door behind her opened again. 'Well, there are less screens in here now, at least.'

'Sharee and her friends found each other,' Shauna said. 'I only have to watch four groups, so I only need four screens.' She paused. 'Oh, my God. Tristan's a monkey.'

'Is that a nice way to talk about your sister's friend?'

'No. Really.' Shauna pointed. 'Tristan's a monkey.'