//------------------------------//
// Malefic World 
// Story: The Multiverse in a Nutshell 
// by Pennington Inkwell 
//------------------------------//

"So, what's the plan?"

Penn took a deep breath as he settled into the driver's seat, hovering his hands just over the steering wheel as he watched it drive itself.

"We're going to buy Sunset and Clara enough time to set up that trap of theirs." He muttered, closing his hands around the steering wheel. Just the hum of the engine and the feel of the faux leather on the wheel was enough to send a wave of comfort through his soul.

"Right. The DUELIST is sitting out setting the TRAP, that makes sense." Reason argued.

Penn thought for a moment. She was always stubborn, but maybe rephrasing things would help. "Why do you think the ink demon went after Isis first?" he asked as they rounded another corner. He was already mapping out their next route in his mind, but the ink demon was getting closer, almost on top of their bumper. Running around in an imagined version of his hometown wasn't going to last, which meant they needed a change of strategy.

"What? I don't know, because she's a computer?"

"BECAUSE she's probably the smartest member of our party!" Penn corrected, turning them back towards Main Street. "I have a theory-"

"A GAME-"

Penn reached over and shut off the radio, causing his partner's voice to become muffled and angry for several seconds.

"That reference is too easy and overdone and you should feel bad for making it."

The radio switched itself back on with an indignant click. "Well, excuuuuuuuuuse ME, princess!"

Penn rolled his eyes. "If anybody was going to figure this monster out, it was Isis. I'm thinking that maybe she DID figure something out about it, and the demon KNEW she did... and that's why it took her out first."

"How would it know she knew, though?"

"Because they're both in my head." Penn tapped at his temple to illustrate, despite the fact that he was alone in the car. "And if that's true, then any trap I can think of or know about..."

"The demon will see coming... Got it."

Penn tightened his grip on the steering wheel as they pulled out onto the main highway running through the town. It was a straight sprint from here, Sylvia versus Bendy. His foot was already flat against the floor, and the engine was whining at him as she tried to push to higher and higher speeds. 

"Come on, old girl..." he rubbed his hand affectionately on the steering wheel. "I know we've pushed you hard today, but I really need you to hold up..."

"Penn, you know that this isn't the REAL Sylvia, right? You don't have to imagine her EXACTLY the same..."

Before he could respond, the entire car shuddered and seemed to settle more. The sound of the engine shifted from a strained whine to a pleased purr, and the entire car surged forward, putting precious distance between him and the demon.

"In fact, this car could be systematic... Hydromatic... ULTRAMATIC... Penny, are you pondering what I'm pondering?"

Penn snickered. "I think so, Brain, but where are we gonna get that much mayonnaise on a Saturday night?"

BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRMMMMMM! Their conversation was cut short by the roar of an angry-sounding engine. Penn turned his head to look out the window and felt all of the joy that their jokes had brought drop out along with the bottom of his stomach.

"Am... Am I seeing what I think I'm seeing?"

There was the ink demon, keeping perfect pace with them. It had changed its shape, abandoning the oversized arms and monstrous appearance in favor of a more modern device: a three-wheeled motorcycle that rode low to the ground, almost like a drag racing car. It had returned to its lanky, twisted form and reclined into the seat, but the shimmering black surface of its vehicle made it clear that the two were a single entity. Everywhere the tires made contact with the ground seemed to leave a black pollution, and the farther they drove, the more it spread. The only thing that refused to change was that smug, teasing grin plastered across its face.

"It's evolving... Catching up to the modern day..." Penn muttered.

The two machines, each one an extension of their rider, kept perfect pace with one another. Soon, the facsimile of Penn's town had been left far behind and melted back into the rest of his imagined space. Now the open road had become a freeway laid across his mind. Their race had entered a new stage.

The Ink Demon turned to look at him with its eyeless face before raising its gnarled arm. Globules of ink flowed up and wrapped around it, eventually forming into a wide blade-like shape... a shape that was etched deep into Penn's soul. Even pitch-black and without any details, he knew what the demon was challenging him to.

"Alright, monster..." he muttered. With a grunt, he pushed in on the steering wheel. In the kind of logic that would work only in a dream, the entire steering column collapsed and shrunk, causing the console in front of him to fold in on itself and shatter. The pieces all shuffled and reconfigured until the entire steering mechanism and dashboard had been replaced with a table-like surface and sixteen rectangular outlines. Five monster zones, five spell and trap zones, two link zones, and all the rest.

"Is he SERIOUSLY trying to beat us at our own game?"

"YOU'VE been keeping me alive in here, partner. If he beats us in a duel, I lose your protection, and the only thing holding him back will be sheer willpower." Penn's eyes narrowed. "He's not challenging me, he's challenging YOU."

"Well, too bad. I only let YOU duel for me, so he's challenging YOU."

"Yeah, yeah... Who's on first, What's on second, does it really matter?" Penn reached into the center console, retrieving a bundle of cards and setting them onto the appropriate slot. "Just try not to clutter up my hand with high-level monsters this time, I don't want to rely on drawing Montage Dragon."

"You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that was implying you DON'T want to draw me!"

Penn looked back out his window, giving the demon a glare and an affirmative nod to indicate that he was ready. With its free hand, the creature grabbed at the handlebars and yanked them to the side.

"WHOA!"

"LOOK OUT!"

Penn slammed on the brakes, only barely avoiding the collision and dropping behind the demon's tri-wheeled cycle.

In the place formerly occupied by the speedometer and other gauges, an image of Bendy's face appeared.

TURN ONE: BENDY

"Nuts... Should've paid more attention to 5Ds..." he muttered under his breath.

"Yeah, letting him have the lead was a mistake."

"Well, our deck does better going second, anyway. Always look on the bright side of life..."

Penn couldn't see much of the ink demon from behind, but he didn't need to see his opponent placing down the card to recognize the effect of a field spell. The pollution creeping out from the wheels spread even faster, racing out and overtaking everything in sight. Rather than just the pitch-black that had existed before, however, this was a blackness punctuated by stars and nebula-like clouds of color. Every hard edge seemed to glow with iridescence, resulting in an effect that sent a flicker of recognition through his mind.

"Aw, nuts..."

"Have to admit... We should have seen this archetype coming."

There was a flash of brown as a hastily-discarded card fluttered through the air and was caught on the windshield. It was a classic card that Penn knew well, and a powerful one, at that: Rainbow Dragon.

Ahead of them, the black surface of the ink rippled before exploding upwards, arcing into a long, narrow body. and a pair of wide wings. When it had finished, the majority of the ink washed away, exposing the monster that had been summoned. It looked like Rainbow Dragon at first, with the same white serpentine body and glittering multicolored gemstones along its length, but two things stood out to reveal the key difference: its wings were covered in black plating with silvery white accents and a mask appeared to have been fused over its face, split down the center between pitch-black and shining white. The creature roared loudly enough to shake the ground under their wheels, and Penn nearly vomited when its sickening aura washed over him.

Malefic Rainbow Dragon

ATK: 4000 DEF: 0

The Malefic archetype. It had appeared only once in the series: the tenth anniversary movie. A villain named Paradox had been rampaging across space and time, stealing and collecting all of history's most powerful monsters and bending them to his will. By banishing the original creature from their deck, a duelist could instantly summon a dark copy of the monster to their field, and they could keep doing so as long as their "Malefic World" field spell remained intact. It was a cruel archetype that enslaved monster spirits to the user regardless of whether or not they wanted to fight for them...

But it was effective. His opponent already had a 4000 ATK monster on the first turn. The only thing keeping them safe was the fact that attacking on the first turn wasn't allowed.

Penn rolled down his window and reached around, plucking the copy of Rainbow Dragon from the windshield and tossing it into the passenger seat.

"You shouldn't treat your cards so disrespectfully..." he growled as the display changed to his own face.

TURN TWO: PENN

He drew the top six cards off of the top of his deck, whispering a silent prayer that his cards wouldn't let him down. He was going to need every trick he had if he wanted to survive this duel.