Settling the Score Part I

Virtual World

The group found their way out of the warehouse.

Serenity looked back at the building. 'Poor Tristan.'

'Don't worry,' Yugi said. 'The Big 5 said they had him in some kind of a virtual holding area. We just have to find him before they take control of his body.'

Sharee frowned. 'My only concern is how quickly they can transfer his mind out and take over his body.'

'Yeah,' Joey said. 'They might be able to do it like real quick. And then his mind will be trapped in cyberspace. We gotta get him back, now!'

'Well, we're not gonna find him standing around here.' Sharee turned and led the group around the warehouse. 'This looks like the perfect place to hide someone's body.'

'Hey!' Téa exclaimed. 'Yeah!'

The others followed. Yugi was the first to catch up with her. 'Sharee, I've been meaning to ask.'

'Yeah?' Sharee responded.

'Me, Joey, and Téa only learned to use our Deck Masters' special abilities by luck or because the Deck Master told us,' he said. 'But you said that Shauna provided you with a device that told you.'

'Yeah. Why? Do you wanna look at it?'

'Yes, please.'

At that moment, the device in question appeared, hovering in front of them. The whole group stopped short.

'Wow,' Duke remarked. 'I guess she's watching.'

'Is that how you found it?' Serenity asked Sharee.

'Pretty much.' Sharee took the device out of the air and handed it to Yugi. 'Here you go.'

Yugi took the device and started scanning through it. The rest of their friends crowded around.

'What's with the arrow?' Joey asked.

Sharee turned her head. She didn't know, but at a guess she'd say Shauna wanted them to go in whichever direction it was pointing in. 'Which way is it pointing?'

Joey pointed.

'Right,' Sharee said. 'While you guys look at that, I'm gonna see what's over there.' She turned and walked away from her friends. As she rounded the corner, she saw what she suspected her sister wanted her to see.

It looked like Tristan had just swung a pipe at Kaiba, and the teenaged billionaire had jumped out of the way. Mokuba was standing back, but not far enough back for her tastes. Sharee moved forward and grabbed his shoulder. He looked up, alarmed, but relaxed when he saw who it was.

'Welp,' she remarked as she pulled Mokuba a bit further back. 'Looks like they've already taken over Tristan's body.'

'Oh, geez!' Kaiba remarked in annoyance. 'Tell me he's the only one.'

'Yeah,' Sharee said. 'They insist on beating us at duels first. He lost because his hormones rendered him stupid.'

'What do you mean?' Mokuba asked.

Kaiba sneered as the Big 5 guy in Tristan's body swung the pipe at him again. 'He was bad enough as it was without throwing his crush on Wheeler's sister into the mix.'

Sharee put it, she thought, in rather nicer terms. 'He kept trying to play the White Knight to her Damsel in Distress.' Honestly, Sharee was more annoyed at Tristan than she was at Serenity.

That last one was sort of acceptable but if he hadn't done it before, and if he hadn't used his Deck Master, it wouldn't have been a loss. She and Duke had managed to win that Duel before it circled back around to Serenity. But that was a grumble for another time, and it could wait.

At that moment, their friends ran around.

'Look!' Yugi cried out. 'It's Tristan!'

'And Kaiba and Mokuba!' Téa added.

Sharee rubbed her temples. 'It's not Tristan. His mind's already been moved out of his body.'

The Big 5 guys chuckled and spoke. 'Yes. I've taken over your friend's body! And now that that'd over, I can take care of you!" He charged at Kaiba again. 'En garde!'

Only for Kaiba to jump out of the way and grab a nearby pipe. He lifted it to use as a defensive weapons, but Nezbitt moved faster. The pipe was almost immediately knocked out of his hands. Mokuba pulled out of Sharee's grip, despite her cry of protest. Kaiba stepped back.

'Mokuba!' he snapped.

Nezbitt charged again…and something truly bizarre happened.

A tiny robot monkey jumped out of nowhere. It immediately clamped onto Nezbitt's – well, Tristan's – head. The man immediately began pin wheeling around and trying to get the little thing off.

'Eh?' Joey ran forward.

'Wait!' Duke called. 'Come back!'

'What is that thing?' Yugi asked.

'It appears to be a very angry robot monkey.' Sharee folded her arms. 'This is the strangest thing I have ever seen.'

Nezbitt finally got it off and threw it aside.

Joey was still charging though. 'This is getting too weird!' He kicked Nezbitt back from an angle he clearly wasn't expecting.

Nezbitt went flying through a door, splintering it under him.

Yugi was the first to run over to Joey, and the rest of them soon followed. Except for Sharee. There was something very odd about that monkey and she was going to investigate. She walked over to the pile of boxes where the robot had landed. She was surprised to see it was still intact and seemed to be dazed…like a person.

'Joey!' Téa insisted. 'It's still his body!'

Sharee's attention was suddenly turned away from the monkey by the sound of a motorbike engine revving. She turned and nearly had a heart attack when she saw that Téa and Serenity were standing in the doorway. 'Téa! Serenity! Get the hell away from that door!'

Both girls dived away just as Nezbitt came roaring out on a motorbike. He flew up into the air. Most of the others cried out in alarm. Kaiba, though, tensed and ground his teeth. Then he had to jump out of the way because where he was standing was where Nezbitt had been aiming.

'Seto!' Mokuba called.

It happened so fast, Sharee herself barely caught it. Nezbitt swung by Mokuba and scooped him up. Sharee twisted fast, but there was nothing she nor anybody else could do without a motorbike of their own. She glanced over and looked as Kaiba's eyes widened in horror.

It was all he could do to scream, 'Come back right now!' But he immediately turned and ran into the warehouse Nezbitt had just come from.

Yugi, Sharee, and the rest of the gang, however, ran to the spot where he'd vanished into a tunnel.

'Too late!' Joey exclaimed. 'He's gone!'

'Oh, no!' Téa cried.

'Mokuba!' Yugi called.

Sharee looked down into the dark tunnel. She couldn't see a damn thing. But she heard the roar of the second motorbike and she was less surprised than all their friends when Kaiba tore past them on his own motorbike. They all jumped out of the way, but Sharee didn't.

'What now, guys?' Yugi asked.

'Now we take a look at this monkey.' Sharee turned around to find it'd moved behind them. She leaned down and clicked her tongue. I knew there was something odd about it. She reached down and picked it up.

'What's the interest in the monkey?' Joey asked.

'Well, who does it remind you of?' Sharee asked.

'Uh…'

'Am I seriously the only one that noticed?' Sharee smiled as she found a switch on the back of the monkey's head. She flicked it and the flipped the monkey around, only to get a very familiar voice.

'Will you stop that? I'm getting seasick!'

'Tristan?' the whole group demanded.

'As I thought,' Sharee said.

'Hey, you got my voice back!' Tristan exclaimed.

'I didn't get it back,' Sharee said. 'You're in a robot monkey. It'd be more accurate to say I switched it on.'

'Tristan!' Joey roared and launched himself over.

Sharee let him go and grinned to herself as Joey just about throttled the…toy possessing Tristan's mind. 'You little twit! Don't go about making me worry like that ever again!'

Sharee laughed. 'Well, I think that's enough monkey business.' She walked over to the warehouse.

Horrible pun.

I know, but totally worth it.

'Where are you going?' Duke asked.

'Well, Nezbitt got a motorbike from there,' Sharee said. 'And Kaiba got a motorbike from there. I'm gonna see what other vehicles they've got.'

YGO

Kaiba drove the motorbike after Nezbitt, his gut turning with rage. Hang on, Mokuba. I'll rescue you from these corporate Sleazeballs!

As he came out of the tunnel, he saw the bridge had a massive section of it missing. Kaiba's eyes widened for a moment. He quickly gauged the jump he'd have to take. This shouldn't be too tough. Speeding up, he took that jump with a grunt of effort. Adrenalin pumped through him. As he started coming down again, he saw the figure standing in the middle of the road.

Instinct kicked in as the tires hit the road on the other side. He swerved with a curse and the bike skidded. Kaiba quickly flipped out of the way. The ache in his leg meant nothing to him. It wasn't really there. He stood up and walked over to the flaming debris. Well, there went his ride.

A dark chuckle made him look up to see a covered man standing on the other side. 'So we meet again, Seto Kaiba.'

'Who are you?' Kaiba demanded.

'Ha! How quickly we forget our old friends.'

'Enough games!' Kaiba snapped. 'Where can I find Mokuba?'

'If you ever want to see that brother of yours again, you'll have to make it past me!'

New Haven, CT, USA

Shauna watched the whole thing before with suspicion burning in her mind.

What's Noah planning now? He'd taken Mokuba away from Nezbitt and into some kind of made-up study. The way he was speaking to the boy led Shauna to believe he was trying to manipulate Mokuba in some way. She just had to watch and see what it was. Intervene only if she had to.

She was going to have to, she thought.

Noah didn't strike her as the kind of kid who handled failure well.

Virtual World

'Do you have any idea who you're dealing with?'

'Well, now I do,' Kaiba said. 'It took me a minute but I recognise your voice, Leichter.' He activated his duel disk. 'So let's get this duel over with.'

Leichter clicked. 'My sentiments exactly.' Rows of duelling cards appeared to the right of each of them. 'So, go ahead and chose your cards from the virtual card database.'

'Gladly.' Kaiba picked his cards quickly. Unfortunately, here he didn't have the option of grabbing three Blue Eyes White Dragons. The virtual deck appeared in his duel disk.

'Now choose a monster to act as your Deck Master,' Leichter said.

Kaiba took the deck and pulled one particular card out. 'This is a no-brainer, Leichter.' The monster emerged from his card. 'I choose Lord of Dragons!'

'And I have already taken the form of my Deck Master,' Leichter said. 'Can you tell which monster I've become?'

Well, given that he'd clearly put out effort to conceal that, 'No. And, quite frankly, I don't care, Leichter. Because crushing you will be a simple task, regardless of your Deck Master. So let's begin!'

'It's time to duel, as they say.' Leichter activated his own duel disk. 'Don't expect any courtesy from me! I'll go first.' He drew. 'I play one monster in defence mode.' He set the card face-down and it appeared on the field. 'Then I'll place two cards face-down and end my turn.' He set the cards and they also appeared on the field.

Kaiba drew. 'I summon Spear Dragon!' He laid the card on the field and the monster appeared in front of him.

'You're so confident, aren't you, Mr. Kaiba?' Leichter mocked him. 'Well, go ahead and attack me. My monster is in defence mode so my life points are well-protected.'

'You're wrong, Leichter,' Kaiba snapped. 'You didn't do your research.' He called out the order. 'Spear Dragon, attack his face-down card!' The Spear Dragon let loose a blast not unlike a tornado. It cross the field and hit his face-down card, revealing it before destroying it.

'You attacked Hero Shadow Scout,' Leichter said. 'So you must draw three cards and show them to me.

Kaiba frowned as the cards floated out of his duel disk and rose up as holograms. 'So what? You still lose life points, even though your monster was in defence mode, thanks to my Spear Dragon's special ability. I told you: you didn't do your research.'

Leichter's life points dropped down to 2600. 'Well, you have to discard the two magic cards you just drew thanks to my monster's ability.'

The cards were back in his hand, so Kaiba just dropped them into his graveyard. 'My move's not over.' He took another card from his hand. 'I place one card face-down.' The card in question appeared on the field in front of him. Ha! When the time is right, I'll reveal my Crush Card and this duel will be over. Say goodbye, you faceless fool! And then he could get back to the far more important job of finding Mokuba.

'Before I take my turn, I'll activate my trap card.' Leichter did exactly that and the card in question flipped up. 'Solemn Wishes! Now, I'll draw.' He drew his next card with a chuckle. 'And since my turn has officially begun, my life points will increase. That's because my Solemn Wishes trap card boosts my life points by 500 points with every card I draw.' With golden dust falling over him, his life points flew up to 3100.

Enjoy it while you can, Kaiba thought. Because your next turn will be your last, then you'll all pay for taking my little brother.

'Now I play a monster in defence mode, and play one card face-down on the field.' Leichter set both cards and they appeared on the field in front of them. 'Your move.'

Strange. Kaiba was instantly suspicious. He must see that my Spear Dragon goes into defence mode after it attacks, and that it has 0 defence points. So why didn't he attack it?

'Is there a problem, Mr. Kaiba?' Leichter asked. 'Because I'd appreciate it if you would make your move, so I can defeat you and take over your body.'

'In your dreams,' Kaiba snapped and drew. He set a card. 'I summon Giant Germ!' The monster in question appeared on the field. 'Then I'll switch my Spear Dragon into attack mode.' His Dragon shifted. 'Now, Spear Dragon, destroy his face-down monster!'

'Not so fast, Seto!' Leichter snapped. 'Activate trap card!' The card in question flipped up. 'Mask of Perplexity!'

What essentially amounted to a gas mask flew out of the card and across the field. It hit Kaiba's face and, for a moment, he was blinded. 'Wha—What is this? I can hardly see!'

'That's the idea,' Leichter said. 'Now you won't know whose monster you're attacking! Mine or yours. Time for you to attack, Mr. Kaiba, but I doubt you'll be able to see what you're doing.'

He couldn't get the damn mask off, but he still had to attack. 'Spear Dragon, attack that card!'

The Spear Dragon attacked and he finally got the mask off.

'Now take a look and see what you've chosen,' Leichter crowed.

It was heading right for his own card. 'Ah!'

'Too bad, Mr. Kaiba,' Leichter said. 'It looks like you've attacked your own monster, Giant Germ.'

The Giant Germ was destroyed.

Kaiba smirked. 'That's what I was aiming for, you foolish old man. I had to destroy my Giant Germ. So I can active my all-powerful Crush Card trap!' He activated the card and it flipped up. It also handily docked 500 life points from him.

But then Leichter laughed.

Something hit the card and it was vanished. 'It's destroyed! But how? You have the power to destroy traps?' Then it hit him. 'Now I know what monster you are, Leichter – the only monster I know with the power to destroy trap cards!'

Leichter shed his disguise to reveal the monster underneath. 'Yes! I am Jinzo! And with a monster this powerful as my Deck Master, you don't stand a chance. So prepare to lose your body to me forever!' He laughed. 'I've been waiting for this moment for quite some time, Mr. Kaiba. For years I stood by and watched you rise to power – a power that should have been mine!'

Yeah, Kaiba remembered.

One day, Gozaboro had Hobson roll in a huge stack of money. He'd told Kaiba that if he managed to triple it by the same time the following year, he would earn the right to inherit KaibaCorp. Kaiba had not only tripled it. He'd gone on to overthrow Gozaboro and just take the company.

Funny how Leichter forgot the part the Big 5 had played in that.

Sure, Kaiba wasn't proud of everything he'd done in that moment. In fact, some things – mostly surrounding Mokuba – he was ashamed of. But he'd done it all for the two of them. By taking over the company, he got rid of the abusive bastard that was Gozaboro and he'd set both himself and Mokuba up for life.

That was the whole point.

'With my help,' Leichter said, 'you made ten times your money back in that one day. And you got all the credit!'

'Well, of course,' Kaiba said. 'It was my business skills that earned me that money, Leichter. All you did was follow orders.' He narrowed his eyes. 'That's all you were good for. You never once had your own idea. You couldn't have run KaibaCorp.'

'Not only could I,' Leichter said. 'But I will, once I escape to the real world in your body.'

'Not quite,' Kaiba said. 'When my Giant Germ was destroyed,' he drew, 'its special ability was activated allowing me to summon another one.' The second Giant Germ appeared on the field.

'You're just delaying your eventual destruction, Mr. Kaiba,' Leichter said. 'Since I have assumed the form of Jinzo, all of your trap cards are useless. And you know as well as I do that no one wins a duel with monsters alone.'

'Leichter, I'll never lose this game to you!' Kaiba snapped.

'Oh, you'll lose so much more than just this game! Let the onslaught continue.' Leichter drew. 'Remember, I get 500 more attack points every time I draw thanks to my Solemn Wishes trap card.' His life points went up to 3100 again. 'And now I'll place two cards face down.' He set the cards and they appeared on the field in front of him.

'Whatever!' Kaiba drew. 'Spear Dragon, attack his face-down monster with Cyclone Blast!' The Dragon attacked again. The blast hit, but then the card it'd struck glowed.

'Nice try,' Leichter said. 'But I'm afraid your attack is useless, because I activate Cyber Jar!' The Cyber Jar appeared on the field. 'Which destroys every monster on the field.'

'Oh, no!' Kaiba watched as both of his monsters were sucked into the Cyber Jar. Then it exploded.

Leichter's life points dropped down to 1700. 'Maybe it cost me a few life points, but it cost you all of your monsters.' He drew. 'Now we draw five cards and summon any monsters we pick.'

Kaiba did just that. 'Vorse Raider and Twin-Headed Behemoth!' His monsters appeared on the field in defence mode.

Leichter apparently only got one. 'Injection Fairy Lily.' He drew. 'And since it's my turn again, I gain another 500 life points thanks to my Solemn Wishes trap card.' His life points went up to 2200. He raised his arm up into the air. 'And now I activate Watch Tranquiliser!' The watch appeared on his wrist. 'This magic card equips me with an electronic device that lowers the attack strength of your offensive monsters, Mr. Kaiba.' He activated it and raised it. 'Let's give it a test run, shall we?' First he shot a tiny dark from the watch out at Vorse Raider. Leichter chuckled. 'My Watch Tranquiliser is about to weaken your Vorse Raider. Since it's a Level 4 monster, it will lose 400 attack points, bringing it down to a total of 1500.' The monster's attack dropped from 1900 to 1500.

That doesn't matter. His Fairy Lily is still weaker than my monster.

'Now it's time for you to experience my Fairy Lily's special ability. By giving up 2000 life points, I can raise her power by 3000.' Leichter's life points dropped to 200 while the Fairy Lily's attack points flew up to 3400. As they did so, the syringe she was sitting on grew. 'Enough to wipe out your monster and then some.'

Kaiba narrowed his eyes.

'Lily, attack!' Fairy Lily squawked and flew at the Vorse Raider.

Kaiba grunted and covered his face as his monster was destroyed. His life points dropped to 1200.

But at least her attack points went down again.

'And that's not all, Mr. Kaiba.' He activated one of his face-down cards and it flipped up. 'Activate Sebek's Blessing!'

Kaiba didn't know why, but he felt like Leichter had pronounced that wrong.

'This magic card allows me to take the life points that you just lost and add them to my own.' Leichter's life points flew up to 2100. 'Reducing your chances of survival even more!'

Kaiba growled and drew back.

'Finally,' Leichter took a card from his hand and set it face-down, 'I'll summon a monster in defence mode and end my turn.'

'Very well.' Kaiba drew and added the card to his hand.

'You'll never recuperate from the blow I just delivered!' Leichter bragged.

Kaiba glared at him. I've conquered every challenge life has given me. This duel will be no different. He took a card from his hand and set it. 'I'll place one monster in defence mode!'

'So you thought you'd play it safe by summoning a monster in defence mode?' Leichter asked. 'Well, I have other plans for you, Mr. Kaiba! Activate Life Absorbing Machine!'

Kaiba managed to keep his facial reaction down to a twitch.

'This trap card allows me to reclaim half of the life points I gave up in my last turn,' Leichter said. 'Giving me quite a power boost – not that I need extra life points to ensure my victory.' He drew. 'But it couldn't hurt.' He laughed as the effect of Solemn Wishes kicked in and his life points shot up to 3600. 'Next I'll sacrifice my face-down monster,' the monster in question vanished, 'in order to summon my ultimate weapon.'

The card appeared on the field and activated.

A missile suddenly began rising out of the ground between them. It moved out and shot into the sky, causing quite the gust. Kaiba found he had to dig his heels into the road to keep himself from being blown off-balance. Even before he asked, he had a feeling he wouldn't like the answer.

'Whoa! What's that?'

YGO

Sharee drove the green truck they'd found after Kaiba.

There wasn't a speed limit but she found herself naturally moving at the most comfortable speed. Joey sat next to her in the passenger seat. The rest of the gang sat in the tray. It'd bothered Sharee at first. They had nothing to stop them going over the edge except for the barriers of the tray. Hence, why she was only going at about 60.

The window was rolled half-down so she could still hear them.

'Good thing we found this virtual pick-up truck,' Duke remarked.

'Yeah,' Yugi said, climbing up to look over the top of the cabin. 'I'm glad Sharee thought of looking in there. It beats walking. That's for sure. And it should help us to find the—'

Sharee cut him off when she suddenly hit the brakes.

Rolling the window the rest of the way down, Sharee leaned out the window. 'Yugi, do me an itty-bitty little favour. The next time you are on the tray of a moving pick-up, unless it is going real slow, don't move off your butt. If you go flying, that'll be the end of you.'

Yugi winced. 'Sorry, Sharee.'

Sharee sighed and reached for the clutch again.

'Whoa!' Joey suddenly gasped. 'What is that?'

'Hm?' Sharee looked up. As soon as she saw what'd caught Joey's eye, her own eyes narrowed. 'Ooh! That's not good.'

Yugi looked up. 'Oh, wow!'

'It looks like some kind of rocket,' Duke remarked.

'That's not a rocket,' Sharee said. 'It's a missile.'