//------------------------------// // Episode 7: Call of the Darkness // Story: Yu-Gi-Oh E-Quest: Malefic Wars // by DakariKingMykan //------------------------------// EPISODE SEVEN Garfield gone a long way, and beaten a ton of Maleficans… Now he was just sitting on a rock, way out in the middle of nowhere. He was practically meditating-- his eyes were shut behind his face-coverings and he kept nice and still, which was usually how he preferred it… …Silence, stillness, with nobody around to bother or irritate him. Suddenly, he knew he wasn’t alone. “What do you want now?” he asked to Raven, whom had finally managed to track him down via his footprints, and that he didn’t get very far anyway. She was all hot and sweaty, and took a sip from a canteen she had from the feast. “How much longer are you going to continue following me?” he asked sternly. “Don’t start with me!” Raven snapped. “I’m tired, I’m fed up, and I’m sick of all this drama.” Gar could only scoff at her, “Well, maybe you should never have come to the Friendship Cup Tournament in the first place. You don’t even like dueling.” Raven narrowed her eyes. “You know, you entered the tournament too, and unlike us you did it for your own greedy reasons.” Gar didn’t even so much as growl, knowing she was right about that, and he didn’t care. “You take pride in talking down to me, the others, and especially the Equestrians, and you even went as far as to knock me out during the finals!” She still was obviously very sore with him for the way he sent her crashing into the wall, knocking her unconscious and breaking her duel disk. Gar still had no qualms about that, but thinking of it brought back those slapping sounds in his head, as if somewhere were striking him, which made his fist quiver. “My point still stands. Besides, you don’t even like dueling, and you entered the tournament for a more ridiculous reason-- trying to save a city that is already beyond hope.” Now Raven was furious. Gar got up, “Unlike you, I keep my mind focused on what’s in front of me, and that’s why I’m battling all the Maleficans I come across. The more this army diminishes, the more those Prince Brother will be likely to reveal themselves, and when they do…I’ll be ready for them.” It was in vain that Raven tried to reason with him, “Gar, will you stop being cocky and stubborn. You have no idea the powers that exist here.” He only scoffed, “Same old Raven, little understanding or regarding of what’s around her. It’s no wonder you lost to me, just like everyone else. IT’s no wonder you were surrounded by those monsters… …But, of course, it’s also no wonder I outwitted you all when you tried to chase me in the streets.” They both recalled how the Titans and the Equestrians tried to chase him and unmask him, but he managed to elude them by ducking into the alley. He had in fact used his animal morphing-- for the first time in a long time-- turning into a mouse and making it easy to hide in the dark ways and no one would see him, making it look as if he had vanished. “…Pathetic!” he scoffed. “Like I said… I can look after myself. I don’t need help, especially from a bunch of pathetic wannabes who couldn’t duel their way out of a shopping bag.” Raven’s fists were quivering, but despite her lack of powers, she still tried to keep her emotions in check. “I’m warning you, Gar…!” “No! I’m warning you-- stay out of my way. And for the last time… My name is “Masquerade!” Garfield is dead, like he should be, and like YOU always wanted!” He began to walk off again. Raven felt most insulted. “Fine!” she called after. “Hope you get turned into a card, you jerk!!” By this point she had completely given up. “I don’t care what the others say. He’s a heartless and ungrateful punk who ought to be put in his place.” Sunset and her gang had reached the place where Gar and Raven were a while back, and judging from the way the land looked beat up, there was a duel there, which accounted for the distant explosion they saw. “Look, there’s footprints.” said Luna. Vic didn’t have to scan one of them to know, “Raven... I’d recognize her sole marks anywhere.” “Well, whose are the other footprints?” asked Celestia. Vic was unable to scan the other prints-- there was no data from, what was likely, custom made footwear. Still, the footprints were headed north, deeper into the dark lands Celestia was feeling a bit weary having come all the way. “Why don’t we sit here and rest a bit.” suggested Luna. “I can keep going.” Celestia insisted. “Besides, we can’t stop now.” said Sunset “Imagine how much trouble the others are getting into.” Luna agreed with Vic. “We should stop a rest a while. We are very tired, and it won’t make much of a difference if we continue on. We won’t have much strength to even stand, much less defend ourselves.” “Exactly right.” agreed Twilight “Besides, we do need to have faith in the others, and I know we’ll all be together soon.” So everyone sat down by the rocks and relax, even snacked a little on their packed foods from the feast. Little did they realize, that sheet covered person was watching them from the hillsides. “If I keep following them, I’m certain to find the ones I seek.” Then she slipped down to keep out of sight. Meanwhile, Sunset was poking through her cards to keep them all in check and make any changes from booster packs she carried in her pockets. Then she checked her Extra Deck, and it all seemed in order, except for that lone card that was still blank. The same questions kept haunting her. “What is this card? Why won’t it reveal itself? Who sent me it, and all the others?” …All questions and no answers, and she still kept worrying about the others and if they were safe. In the canyon regions, Dick, Pinkie, and Rainbow climbed up to the top of a mountain, hoping they could see far out at the top and maybe spot any of the others. Rainbow and Pinkie climbed very well, after all those times of going rock-climbing together, but still, climbing up too high and for too long wore them down a bit. “Finally…!” Pinkie panted when they finally reached the top. Rainbow couldn’t deny her weariness herself, and she remembered how the Chef Malefican used a Twin Twisters card to send everybody flying, which meant certain other cards were probably capable of such things as well. She held up one of her Raidraptors, hoping to summon it and hitch a ride with it, but nothing happened. “Ugh!! It’s no use!” she growled “Without that Malefic magic, it won’t work.” Pinkie was more distracted with the view, “Look at that…!” she exclaimed softly. The view was almost breathtaking. There were loads of mountains, plains, shrouded until the dark, shadowy skies, and that was what made things creepy-- not like being on a real nature hike. “Not a sign of anything in-particular.” said Rainbow. Dick stood near the edge, looking out into the lands and worrying about the others, especially his wife. “KORI…!!” His voice echoed along the mountains, and it wasn’t the first time either. He had been calling out for her several times-- she being his wife and he was rightfully concerned about her most. “Dick, it’s no use, they can’t hear us.” said Rainbow “Yelling for her again and again won’t help.” “Besides,” whimpered Pinkie “What if you attract those big, ugly Maleficans and they’ll come after us?” “I’m hoping they do.” said Dick. “What?!” spat Rainbow “You WANT them to come after us?” “Don’t you get it?” said Dick. “It may be our best chance of finding the others, and maybe even where the Prince Brothers are based.” Rainbow blinked once, “Yeeeeeeahhh… not so sure it could work.” “Uh… I think it could,” whimpered Pinkie “…Because I think it has!” Rainbow and Dick turned round and saw a trio of monsters rising up from the other edge of the mountain. Normally, Rainbow would have been stoked for some action, but she was still a little wiped from the long climb up. Dick didn’t want to duel them anyway, preferring to try and interrogate the Maleficans, but still keeping in mind they could force them into duels… “Take off your duel disks.” he suggested. The girls agreed, and all three of them removed the disks from their arms, stowing them behind on their belts. The monsters still looked raring to duel, while Dick, who wasn’t too tired looked to ready to fight them himself. The Prince Brothers observed everyone from their lair. “It is useless to resist.” chuckled Rubeus. “Here in our domain, we always get what we want.” Loki nodded in agreement, and he and his brother just watched while snickering. Suddenly, just like magic, Dick’s duel disk appeared back on his arm. “What?” Rainbow and Pinkie’s disks were suddenly flashed onto their arms too, and there armed and ready. “Oh, no!” cried Pinkie. Rainbow growled, “These Prince Brothers aren’t taking any chances. They won’t take “No” for an answer.” Dick was really getting frustrated, but he was forced to comply. “All right... Why don’t we take them all on at once? Then we can look out for one another.” The girls agreed, and were ready to duel. Elsewhere, Sunset’s group was on the move again, and Vic’s scans were showing a strong signal. “Hey, look up ahead!” cried Sunset. Everyone looked up ahead and could see Raven far off in the plains. “Yo’ Rae….!” shouted Vic “Rae, over here!” Raven looked up, and she couldn’t believe how glad she was to see some familiar, and friendlier looking people, and she and the group dashed towards each other. “Are you alright?” asked Celestia, “I’m okay, considering all I went through.” Everyone’s bloods turned cold. “You weren’t dueling we’re you?” asked Sunset, and then she remembered, “Of course you weren’t.” Raven explained everything that happened to her. “So you found Gar?” asked Vic “And you just let him go like that?” “He was being a jerk, as usual. I wasn’t going to put up with that, and don’t start with me about what we talked about. We don’t need him.” The others felt annoyed with Gar for his obvious hating. Princess Twilight was especially disturbed. “How can someone be such a grouch at times like this, when we should all be working to help one another?” “Don’t know, don’t’ care about him now.” replied Raven. “We need to find the others and fast. There could be more monsters hiding around here.” “She has a point.” said Luna “Not about the whole not caring thing.” Vic was about to start scanning for the others, but suddenly he noticed, “Ah, man…!” “What? What is it?” asked Sunset. “It’s my power-cell.” cried Vic, “All that dueling and scanning I did really took it out of me.” His power meter read just under fifty-percent, and very slowly, but surely dropping. “This is really bad. I need some way to charge myself, or I’m as good as done.” Everyone began to fret inside. There was no sunlight for his mini solar panels to use. “What can we do?” asked Sunset. “It’s not like there’s some recharge station around here.” “Then we’ll just have to find some way of making one.” said Celestia. As an educator, she wasn’t willing to let Vic suffer so. “And just what do you plan to use?” asked Raven. “All I was able to do was enter the buildings.” Sunset’s eyes lit up, “That could work!” Vic caught on to her plan, “Ah-huh… I like where this is going. We got a plan.” Of course it also meant hiking that long, long way back into the cities, after spending all that time getting all the way out there, but the motivation to help Vic gave them all some strength, and so they turned about and headed back for the city. “What if we run into more monsters?” asked Raven. Sunset held up her duel disk. “I’ll take them on.” “And so will I.” agreed Celestia. She turned to look back at Vic with promising eyes, and Vic couldn’t help but plush. Then he caught hold of himself, “We better go. Every second counts.” While back on the mountain summit, the Maleficans had summoned a load of monsters in play, but the trio of friends were good and ready for them with their own monsters. “Let’s end this, girls!” said Dick. With no spells or traps to defend themselves, the Maleficans didn’t have a chance. Rainbow hollered, “Raidraptor- Rise Falcon… absorb the attack of the strongest monster, and then wipe them all out!” Her mighty falcon gave a huge screech, and blazed at is soared down and burned away all the opposing creatures. “Get ‘em, guys!” Rainbow called to the others. Dick called up to his two monsters, “Performage Trapeeze Magicians… wage a direct attack!” His two monsters swung in and magically zapped the opponents, dealing them a great amount of damage. Finally, Pinkie was left, and even in this dire situation, she couldn’t help but announce like being in a show. “Ladies and Gentlemen, the grand finale…! Watch as my Performapal posse takes away the rest of our opponents’ life points and ends this duel!” Her cute little performers all complied, and goofily, yet effectively took the last of the life points away, and the Maleficans were struck by the lightning from above, and turned into cards. “Show’s over! Smiles win!” “Ah, yeah!” cheered Rainbow as she and Pinkie slapped high-fives, but even though Dick was glad to have won the duel, he didn’t seem so optimistic. “We haven’t really won. There’ll be more.” The girls snapped back to their senses, and once again, Dick couldn’t help but call out, “KORI…!!” Far, far away, Kori, Rarity and Fluttershy were dueling too, and they and their monsters had just wiped out more Maleficans. “Hooligans!” shouted Rarity “Ruffians…! …DEGENERATES!!” The Maleficans were all turned into cards, and Fluttershy was more frightened than relieved, even though she actually won her duels. “It’s so scary!” she whimpered “Losing a duel means…” she gulped hard and pointed at the cards on the ground “…You turn into that!” Kori was disturbed by this whole ordeal. “It doesn’t matter if we win or lose, remember? The Prince Brothers still gain power.” The girls were aware of this too, which made them realize how vital it was to find the rest of the group before things got even worse. “I can’t bear to think how much worse things can get.” said Rarity. “How much stronger and more dangerous can these creatures become?” She and Fluttershy both shuddered with chills. The Brothers had been listening, and Loki actually agreed, “Perhaps we have been going too easy on them.” “Yes, we have.” said Rubeus “In that case, we better start sending out our stronger forces after them.” Loki’s eyes widened, “You don’t mean…?” His brother snickered, which made Loki feel intrigued. The brothers moved to the center of the big room they were in, and together they used their magic to raise a stone block out of the floor, revealing a small box contained within a hollowed niche carved into the block. The box was opened to reveal three different colored cards-- Purple, Blue, and Black. “These cards have been infused with the most incredible of dueling energy.” hissed Rubeus. “With these we shall create duelists of incredible strength and skill.” Loki chuckled, “Let’s do it… now.” Rubeus lay the three cards down on the floor, and then he and Loki combined their powers to infuse them with powerful amounts of Malefic energy, creating the duelists. Each one of them strongly resembled them, as Maleficans-- flat, near-expressionless faces, armor, robes, different styled hair, which, like their armor, resembled the same colors of the respective cards they were created from. “Excellent…” Rubeus hissed. “This is better than I ever hoped it would be.” The three duelists all stood together and called out their names… “Violet”: A female created from the purple card, and she had much longer hair than the others. Her armor, like the card was purple, and coated all over her were insect-like body parts-- claws, wings, hairy legs for edgings. “Sapphire”: A male created from the blue card, with sparkling blue crystal like armor. His hair was short and combed neatly on his head “Khaos”: A male created from the black card, with spikey, dark purple hair that stuck up in all directions, and he wore dark armor, with small tattered cape in the back. All three of them dubbing themselves, “The Terrible Trio” bowed to the princes, declaring, “We exist to serve your highnesses.” The brothers snickered with their creations, and Rubeus stepped forth. “You three have created to do our bidding, and as such you have granted great decks and dueling skills we have perfected over the ages. Use them well to bring us victory. However, in addition, you are tasked with one special goal in mind.” He conjured up an image of Sunset. “This one has incredible potential that she is not yet aware of, and it could prove most-useful in our plots. Should you come across her, do whatever it takes to ensure that this power is awakened.” The trio bowed, but Violet couldn’t help but ask, “What if we are to defeat her, or if one of us should lose? What then?” Loki held up his hand, “Worry naught about that. Just do as you are told.” Khaos bowed, “It shall be done, sires. No one shall stand in our way.” “And one more thing!” sneered Loki, and he showed the trio an image of Celestia, “If any of you are to come across her, there is to be no duel, not even if you have a sure-fire shot at winning. …Anyone who dares to hurt my future queen will answer to me… AND I WON’T BE MERCIFUL!! UNDERSTAND?!!” The trio shuddered, “Sure, sure… we get it.” replied Sapphire. The trio then left the main chamber. Rubeus scolded his brother for his shouting. “You didn’t have to be so touchy. They know better.” Loki calmed himself, “My apologies, but the thought of anyone harming my beloved Celestia, it just fires my temper. It shouldn’t be too much longer before I am ready to welcome her into our world.” Rubeus had other things to tend to, and left his brother to ogle at the image of Celestia, and longing for the day he would make her his queen. As for the trio, they had already made it out into the realm, and a sinister song began to play for them. [Khaos] When the darkness gives its call when you know it’s time to brawl There is naught that can defy… [Violet] When the time has come to choose Who shall win and who shall lose [Sapphire] In our hands your fate shall lie The music then erupted into a wild heavy metal song as the trio began to fly through the air on magical, dark clouds, conjured up by cards they had. All three of them continued to sing loud and viciously… We will catch you in our sight you may fight for what is right But you’ll answer evil’s call You may try and fight or run but when all is said and done all the good and light will fall Are you brave or just a fool? In the shadow games, we rule And our might is best of all Friendship, love, and goodness, they won’t hold us back And when we’re on the move, our decks are stacked, and we attack! This is the call of the darkness Blight out the light This is the call... Never escape at all This is the call of the darkness Blight out the light This is the call... Never escape at all Powers growing in the force We will gather up the source Heed our masters rule and call Terrors always be our guide Evil spreading open wide The world shall be trapped inside See, it’s not just like a game you played so fair the rules and consequences are se there, so beware This is the call of the darkness Blight out the light This is the call... Never escape at all This is the call of the darkness Blight out the light This is the call... Never escape at all/center] Finally, the trio separated, sailing across the realm in different directions, arming their duel disks and their special, custom-made decks the brothers had given them, which, as they had sung, were filled with rare and powerful cards… sorts of which the other duelists were most-likely unfamiliar with. Their mission was still clear… This is the call of the darkness Blight out the light This is the call... Never escape at all This is the call of the darkness Blight out the light This is the call... Never escape at-- Never escape at-- Never escape at all!!