It's Time To Duel!

by DagaYemar

Turn 13: Masters of the Labyrinth vs. Aces High & Dressed to Kill

“Decide who will make the first move,” Dox commanded, “And let the tag duel begin!”

“You go first!” Rainbow shouted immediately.

Rarity choked on what she had been about to say and looked over her shoulder at her partner. They were standing back to back, directly between their opponents. “Dear, what do you think you’re doing? That will give them the advantage!”

“Yeah, but we’ll get the chance to attack first!” Rainbow said, shooting her friend a confident grin. “Trust me, I’ve got a plan.”

“It’s a decision you’ll come to regret!” Para said, drawing a card and starting the game. “I summon Whirlwind Prodigy in attack mode, and lay two cards face down.”

“A good move, brother!” Dox said as the cards appeared on his partner’s field. The air spun up in front of the orange-clad duelist as a boy popped out of the ground before him. The boy held itself aloft in the middle of a small tornado, bits of holographic leaves and debris mixed into the wind.

Para picked another card from his hand and slipped it into his disk. The spell card appeared on the field and waves of sound started whistling out from it. “I end my turn with the Jade Insect Whistle. Tell me, my young fools, do you have any insect monsters in your decks?”

“Urg, no!” Rarity said with a shudder.

Rainbow Dash frowned. “In my deck? No way!”

“Oh, that’s a shame…” Para cooed, his voice dripping with fake concern, “What about you, brother?”

“Why, I believe I do!” Dox grinned, pulling a card out from his deck. “Jirai Gumo, in fact. To the top of my deck it goes!”

Rarity sniffed and pulled the top card of her deck up with a flick of her hand. “Are you quite finished playing with such disgusting cards? Then I shall begin with the spell Graceful Charity to exchange something old for something a tad newer. And next I will summon The Devious Deziner and equip her with Mist Body!”

Her monster appeared by her side, glaring directly at the floating child in front of it. Thin wisps of mist floated off the demon’s body until you couldn’t really tell where it’s body lay exactly. It pawed the ground in barely contained anticipation.

“Is that all?” Para said arrogantly, “Let me show you what a real monster looks like. I activate the trap card Conscription, which lets me summon a monster from the top of any player’s deck. May I, brother?”

“What’s mine is yours, brother,” Dox said, lifting up his left hand. A beam of light shot out of his deck and landed on Para’s field, clearing away to reveal the most hideous, bloated, nightmare-inducing spider you could possibly imagine. The abomination reared back on its many legs and hissed, bits of saliva dripping from its terrible jaws.

Rarity’s flesh crawled and she pressed herself into her partner’s back, trying to put as much distance between herself and it as she could. “Oh, it’s absolutely repugnant! Why would you ever use such a thing?!”

Rainbow Dash nudged her in the back. “Uh, Rarity? It’s just a bug. Calm down, will ya?”

“Calm down? You aren’t the one who has to look at it!” she exclaimed in revulsion. “It. Is. Dripping! Get rid of it!”

“If that is what you wish,” Dox said, “But soon you may wish it had stayed! I activate Tribute Doll! This allows me to sacrifice Jirai Gumo and summon any seven star monster in my hand, such as the mighty Suijin!”

A geyser of water gushed out of the ground at his feet and rose far up above them. A shadowy form slowly grew beneath the water’s surface and the geyser suddenly cut out, dropping away to reveal a giant blue thing. It looked like a gaping demon’s head with a pair of enormous arms coming out of its sides. Or maybe they were legs, it was hard to tell. It floated over Dox’s head like a guardian demon.

“I too shall play a card face down,” he continued. “Then activate Dark Designator. With this I merely have to guess a card in my brother’s deck and if it’s there, it goes straight to his hand. And tell me, do you have Sanga of the Thunder?”

“Why, I have it right here!” Para said, pulling it out of his deck.

“Then I shall end my turn by summoning Kaiser Sea Horse,” Dox finished, as a merman popped out of the ground at his side. It brandished a large spear in its webbed hands threateningly.

Rainbow grinned and almost ripped the top card off her deck. “Finally, I thought it would never get to my turn. Now let me show you how to really duel! I activate the field spell Target Rich Skyline!”

As her spell card activated, the air around them began to darken and fill with wisps of cloud. Soon it looked like they were standing inside of a deep cloud rather than in a building, and shadowy forms flashed every now and then just out of sight in the haze.

“Next I’ll play three cards face down to get them out of my hand,” Rainbow continued, “And I’ll start off my airshow with Falchion Beta!”

The clouds swirled and suddenly a fighter jet shot out from them and circled the suspended duel field. Up close, the plane was clearly more futuristic than normal, with forward curved wings and a large rocket blasting jet fuel out the back.

Rainbow smiled and raised her arms up over her head as the jet continued to circle the field, speaking louder to be heard over the roar of its engine. “How cool is this? How often in a game filled with swordsmen, animals, and wizards do you get to face down a fighter jet?! Maybe not as cool as the Wonder Bolts, but you gotta admit it's still cool! Now watch as my Falchion attacks!”

“You fool!” Dox shouted as the jet banked around and homed in on Suijin. “Has your brain become addled by the clouds? That little plane is the weakest monster played so far! Suijin will crush it into paste!”

A hatch underneath the jet opened and a rocket shot out on a trail of smoke. As the missile passed over Para’s head, the clouds to the side of the duel bulged and a smaller fighter shot out of it. The newcomer flew across the field right into the path of the projectile and they exploded in a burst of violence over the two girls’ heads, just short of actually hitting Dox’s creature.

“Bwahaha!” Rainbow laughed, holding up her palms innocently, “Psyche! I’m not that dumb! My field spell Target Rich Skyline intercepts the first attack I make each turn.”

“Then what was the point of that pantomime?!” Dox demanded.

Rainbow smirked and flipped through her deck with her thumb until she found the card she was looking for. “My jet has a special ability, duh! I can send any monster I want to my graveyard now. Not bad for a first turn, huh?”

“You accomplished nothing!” Para said, drawing angrily, “Allow me to show you what a real turn is like! Brother, I need a monster!”

“By all means, brother!” Dox said as his seahorse was surrounded by glowing energies.

The clouds above the duel rumbled and turned black, splitting apart in a streak of lightning that struck the field at Para’s feet. For a half second every duelist was blinded, and when they could see again a hulking figure was looming just behind the orange-clad man. The lightning flashed again, revealing the monster’s gleaming yellow form.

“When I sacrifice Kaiser Sea Horse, I can bring out a light monster of any level from my hand!” Para declared, pointing straight up at the behemoth, “Behold Sanga of the Thunder! Unleash your fury on that pesky little plane!”

Electricity crackled between the monster’s claws as it held out its limbs, unleashing a discharge at the circling jet. The lightning curved as the plane banked to get away, not letting the nimble machine escape. Moments before the attack would have caught it, Falchion swooped around a bulge in the clouds and another decoy plane flew out into its path. The smaller machine exploded, letting Falchion escape unharmed.

Rainbow Dash laughed. “You didn’t think my field spell only stopped my own attacks, did you?”

Para grunted and glanced to the side at his other monster. “That may be, but it only works on the first attack. Whirlwind Prodigy will finish what Sanga started!”

“Not if I deploy Rare Metalmorph,” Rainbow countered, “Giving my jet a new slick sheen and five hundred more attack points!”

Para’s sorcerer popped out of the clouds in front of Rainbow’s jet and thrust its hands out, conjuring a cyclone of winds in its path. But the outer shell of the jet glowed and took on a sharper, more streamlined look. It powered straight through the violent winds as if they were nothing and fired a round of tracer fire from its nose. The bullets tore across the boy’s chest and it exploded.

“First blood goes to us!” RD cheered, pulling out her deck to search though, “And since Falchion blew up your monster, I can send another one to my grave.”

Para grit his teeth and activated his trap. “My attack is not finished! Call of the Haunted brings back my monster!”

“Bring it on,” Rainbow taunted, holding her hand ready over her two other traps, “I can trash that guy over and over!”

But her opponent wasn’t even looking at her anymore. “I’m well aware. That is why I attack your friend instead!”

The Prodigy held out it's hand and collected a ball of raging winds between its palms. It thrust out and unleashed the squall upon Rarity’s demon, pressing the monster to the floor with the force of the wind. Mist Body kept it from being destroyed, but it was a small comfort to her life points.

“And I will finish my turn with a face down,” Para said as the card appeared on the field.

“Ruffians…” Rarity huffed, drawing her card. She made a sour face at her hand and eventually picked out a pair of cards. “I’ll place one card face down and summon Backup Gardna in defense. Then I’ll switch my Devious Deziner to defense.”

Her monster crouched down and bared its teeth in a belly-deep growl as a pillar of light appeared next to it. The light faded to show off a blue skinned demon, also crouching with its arms crossed over its chest. Both Para and Dox’s eyes widened at her move and they shot each other a well-practiced look, knowing exactly what the other was thinking.

“Uh… Rarity?” Rainbow asked, glancing over her shoulder, “Do you wanna, I don’t know… do something useful with your turn?”

“Do you think?” Rarity returned archly, “Perhaps I could have used my monster’s ability to attack directly, but someone seems to have played a spell that would block my attack!”

“Now, now, don’t beat yourselves up,” Dox interrupted, “That’s our job! I activate Pot of Greed and draw twice.” He grinned widely at his new cards and glanced across the field. “Brother, may I borrow a monster?”

“Of course, brother. That is why he is there!” Para said with an identical smile.

Dark swirling energy circled the Prodigy as Dox raised his new card high. “I use his ability to summon out the last of our mighty trio, Kazejin!”

A tornado enveloped the boy and rolled unchecked across the field until it was on Dox’s side. The winds slowly died down to reveal another gigantic monster had been summoned. This one was a large green globe with two arms held close to its sides. It glared down at the girls from where it floated without apparent care for things like gravity.

“Three level seven monsters, and so quickly…” Rarity muttered, unconsciously hunching down defensively under the weight of their stares.

Dox chuckled and selected another card. “I’m afraid the bad news doesn’t end there. I will use Stop Defense to switch the Deziner to attack mode!”

“What?!” Rarity exclaimed, but she was unable to do anything as her monster rose from its crouch and roared in anticipation.

Dox punched his fist out at it. “Suijin, Kazejin, attack her monster! Show it the power of the elements!”

“Hey, over here! What about me?!” Rainbow Dash shouted, waving her arms and trying to get their attention, but the giants ignored her completely. The green one shot a stream of compressed air from its mouth while the blue one gushed a stream of pressurized water. A decoy plane flew out of the clouds and took the blast of air for her, but it couldn’t stop the water from slamming into the demon and driving both it and its owner to the side of the platform.

“Are you alright?” Rainbow Dash asked, helping her friend to her feet with an arm over her shoulder. Rarity coughed a couple times and nodded, then glared at her opponent.

“Don’t give me such a look,” Dox laughed, crossing his arms, “Just wait until my brother’s turn! Thanks to your own Mist Body, your monster is still in attack mode!”

Rainbow Dash slipped out from under her friend’s arm, after making sure she could stand alright, and raised her disk threateningly. “Don’t worry, Rares, I’ve got this. I summon Victory Viper XX03!”

The clouds parted as another plane swooped out of the clouds and began circling the field. This one barely resembled a fighter jet, its sleek design more akin to a space fighter from a movie.

“And next I’ll activate the spell Power Capsule,” she continued, and a second spaceship exactly like her new one burst forth from the cloud cover, “This spell lets me activate one of Viper’s many abilities right away, such as calling in an Option Token! Now I’ll launch an attack with Falchion!”

Her first fighter streaked down on the field and shot missiles out from its underbelly, which blasted apart another token generated by her field spell. As the remains of the smaller ship fell, they passed another jet shooting up from below.

Rainbow waved at this newcomer as it joined the others above. “This time I’m using Falchion’s other ability and reviving one of the guys I send to the grave earlier, Lord British Space Fighter! And I’ll power him up with my second trap, Metalmorph! This metal coating gives him half the attack points of whatever monster he guns down. Plus when he destroys a monster, he can keep on attacking! Prepare to lose all your precious seven-stars!”

The new jet spiraled high into the air and shot back down, using gravity to accelerate. Lasers lanced out from barrels under each wing as it dived straight at its first target, Sanga. In response the giant spread out its arms and the space between was suddenly filled with cackling lightning. The lasers encountered the mess of energy and were diverted wildly off track, splashing harmlessly into the clouds. The fighter had to bank at an extremely tight angle to avoid the web and was forced to abandon its attack.

“What happened?” Rainbow asked incredulously, “That should have worked!”

Para and Dox laughed mockingly, and Para leaned forward to explain. “Foolish girl, did you think our monsters could be beat so easily? They have special abilities as well, and Sanga’s has rendered your attack null and void!”

“Grr… whatever!” Rainbow said sourly, “I end my turn.”

“And that is all you can do!” Para laughed, drawing, “You may have many monsters, but none of them have the strength of ours. And now we will show you the gulf of that strength!” He lifted his hand and pointed high into the air. “I sacrifice Suijin, Kazejin, and Sanga of the Thunder to summon the mighty Gate Guardian!”

Three brilliant pillars of light enveloped their giant monsters and dissolved their physical forms. The blue, green, and yellow beams swirled together and slammed onto the platform behind Para, depositing a truly enormous creature onto the field. It looked like their three beasts had been simply stacked one atop another, but its points were incomparable.

“Three thousand, seven hundred fifty attack points!” Rarity gasped.

The brothers threw back their heads and laughed triumphantly as the Guardian’s presence began to affect the field. The clouds grew black and heavy, laden with rain that didn’t quite fall, and lightning flashed constantly deep in the clouds. Rainbow’s jets started to struggle against the increased wind that began to buffet the field. It felt like they were dueling in the middle of a violent thunderstorm, where the very weather itself had been turned against them.

“Gate Guardian is one of the strongest monsters in the entire game,” Para gloated, “And the lynchpin of our decks, the master of the maze you will never escape!”

“What maze?” Rainbow demanded, “What are you idiots even talking about?”

Dox laughed again and looked down his nose at her. “Are you really such a fool that you did not notice the twists and turns that the halls of this very castle has become? Our Master has granted us the power to bend space itself, in order to protect his designs! A power that has only grown with each other minion we no longer have to share the power with!”

Para took up the narrative, his earring glowing malevolently in the dim light. “It was us that led you here, and it will be the Gate Guardian that will end this duel and turn you both into willing servants of the Master!”

“It’s still only one monster!” Dash challenged, pointing at it accusingly, “My field spell will block its attack, no matter what its points are!”

“Or so you’d think,” Para said with barely contained glee, “But your spell has played directly into my hands! I equip Fairy Meteor Crush, which will take the difference between the Gate Guardian’s attack points and your interfering toy plane’s defense points out of your life points!”

The Gate Guardian reared back and collected power to its chest. After a moment it shot a stream of electrified, tornado-enveloped water directly at the two duelists. A decoy jet shot out of the clouds to intercept the attack, but it was simply overwhelmed by the blast and absorbed into it. Rainbow Dash and Rarity screamed as the attack smashed into them and engulfed them completely in its power.

“Ready to surrender?” Para asked, leaning forward in anticipation.

“Hardly!” Rainbow shouted, discarding her last card to activate her final trap. “Damage Condenser lets me summon a monster from my deck whose attack is less that the damage we just took. And the monster I want is Flint Lock!”

“More annoying flies…” Para muttered as a fifth jet burst through the clouds and joined the others. This newest ship was so futuristic it was practically a robotic bird of prey, its wings and tail-fins flexing more than a fighter jets’ should. “I will play a second card face down and end my turn…”

Rainbow turned and gave Rarity a knowing look. “So how about that for a plan?”

Rarity arched her eyebrow critically at the newest jet and hummed under her breath. “Perhaps… but let me give something a try first. I’ll start my turn with Card of Sanctity!”

“What a boring play,” Para said, filling his hand along with everyone else, “You have helped us more than you have helped yourselves!”

Rarity ignored his barb and calmly reviewed her hand. “Say what you will, but that garish beast isn’t going to last the turn. I sacrifice both of my monsters for the queen of my deck, the Diva of the Spotlit Runway!”

Her two fiends vanished and a single spotlight pierced the dim cloudy air. It illuminated her new monster, which had appeared without anyone noticing. The Diva straightened up regally as mist from the Mist Body it had equipped from the graveyard rolled off its shoulders, a hint of a metal chain-choker lay wrapped around her neck.

The fashionista pointed at the hulking monster hovering over Para’s head. “My Diva doesn’t share the center stage with any two-bit creature like that. So at the cost of her beautiful new misty coat, we bid your Guardian au revoir.”

The mist bunched up on the Diva’s back, swirled about her head a few times, and then shot across the field like a striking snake.

“I will not allow it!” Dox shouted, activating his last face down, “I’ll use My Body as a Shield!”

Moments before it would have struck the Guardian, the lance of mist curved around to the other side of the field and slammed into his chest. The duelist grunted against the pain and was driven back a step, but he didn’t go down.

Dox huffed and raised his head, defiant. “And that is not the end of my card’s ability.”

The sky above rumbled threateningly and a great bolt of lightning lanced down onto the Diva. The prim demon screeched in surprise and pain as the electricity coursed through it before detonating in a blast of smoke. The smoke was too pitch dark to see through, so Para and Dox were taken completely by surprise when a whirling silver bola shot out from the center of it and zipped across the field. It wrapped around the Gate Guardian, its metal arms pining the great beasts’ arms to its sides.

“You may have struck down my Diva,” Rarity said in a cold voice, “But she won’t be going down alone. That was Flint I just put on your monster, and I doubt I need to explain what happens when I use my Flint Missile!”

Her spell card appeared on the field and a large rocket shot out from the card face. It seemed to be homing in on the metal bindings pinning down the Guardian. It smashed into its chest and blew it back off the platform and into the abyss below, trailing duel shards in its wake. The darkness below lit up with one more giant explosion, and then darkness returned to the field. Meanwhile, the Flint spell flew around the field a few times before wrapping around Rainbow Dash's Flint Lock, its metal arms locking into grooves as if the spell was made to fit.

"When did you play that Flint card?" Para demanded.

"I discarded it back when I used Graceful Charity. Do try to keep up, now. And I shall end my turn with two cards face down," Rarity said, following suit, "Have at it, gentlemen."

Rainbow grinned and cocked her head to the side. "You know, I expected more shock or surprise out of you guys when we blew your precious Gate Guardian to pieces, after all the talking up you gave it. Wasn't he supposed to be your best monster?"

The two of them started to chuckle under their breaths, but it was Dox who answered as he drew his card. "We said it was one of the strongest monsters in the game, not in our decks. No, thanks to your friend, this card was added to my hand. Let me show you what true terror looks like! I activate Dark Element!"

What light there was leaking through the cloud cover seemed to bleed out of the air, leaving the increasingly frequent flashes of lightning the only sources of illumination. In the few-seconds-long beat between a pair of flashes a monster suddenly appeared behind Dox. It clung to the edge of the platforms with its spidery legs, while its human upper half readied a violent looking axe. The thing was so black it was almost merging into the murk of the storm, who's raging intensity had only risen in ferocity.

"Behold the beast our Gate Guardian was guarding you from!" Dox laughed, throwing a hand out behind him at it, "The Dark Guardian! And this will be the last monster you ever see! I attack!"

"I can still block it with my field spell!" Rainbow shouted as a small plane shot out of the clouds.

"Which is why I have Meteorain," Para interrupted, "Which will inflict piercing damage to you as if your little ship were not there!"

"Blast..." Rainbow Dash shouted, flicking desperately though the cards in her hand until she found the one she needed. "Desperate Intercept! I can use this spell from my hand no matter whose turn it is, and it lets me switch that attack to a stronger target!"

The Dark Guardian swung its axe at the tiny token, but a line of tracer fire cut its swing short. Flint Lock dropped from the sky like a stone and flew right up into the beast's face, giving the smaller jet enough time to flee. The Guardian roared and slashed with its weapon, catching the futuristic jet and sending it spiraling over the side of the platform. Surprisingly the jet managed to right itself and flew back up into the sky, no worse for wear.

"Do my eyes deceive me?!" Dox said, uncomprehendingly, "Why are your life points untouched? Why does your jet still live?"

Rainbow quirked her head to the side and grinned. "Don't the names give you a hint? Flint and Flint Lock? When these two cards are combined, they create an unstoppable fighter jet that no monster can take down!"

"And as for our life points," Rarity cut in, "I merely set my Amulet of Affection on Rainbow's dear ship. Now in addition to staying alive, we take no damage should it ever come up a few points short."

"What kind of trickery is this?" Para demanded angrily, "You did not show this kind of teamwork before! Where did this newfound skill at tag duels come from?"

"This is not our first time tag dueling," Rarity sniffed, insulted at the accusation. "I myself find that I duel together with a partner more often than not. And who wouldn't want to duel with me as their partner, after all? In point of fact I added Flint to my deck specifically after the last time Rainbow and I dueled together. Remember, Rainbow?"

Dash scowled momentarily. "Yeah, but don't remind me. I still can't believe Wind Rider accused me of stealing the Wonder Bolt deck! I looked up to him..."

"Enough reminiscing!" Dox shouted, "I set two cards face down and end my turn!"

Rainbow Dash smirked and drew. "Getting impatient to lose? Well how about I start taking back the game! Cup of Ace!"

Her spell appeared on the field and started rotating, like a wheel on a game show. After a few moments it came to rest upside-down.

Dash sighed nonchalantly and shrugged. "Ah well, guess I don't get to draw. Upside-down means my opponent gets two cards... in a normal duel, anyway. Since I can pick any player who isn't me in a tag game, I pick Rarity."

"Why, thank you, darling!" Rarity tittered as she drew her free cards.

"No problem. And for my next move, Lord British, attack!"

“What?” the brothers said simultaneously.

Her named fighter peeled off from the rest and swooped down on the field. Soon a decoy token shot out from the clouds and the two zipped back and forth in a game of cat and mouse. The decoy was quickly shot down, followed by a line of bullets that traced their way over the field and shattered the last card Para had.

“Ha!” Rainbow exclaimed, “Lord British can shoot down any trap card when it destroys a monster!”

"Brother, I am in need of rescue!" Para exclaimed, staring up at the circling jets with the beginnings of fear in his eyes.

“Always, brother! If the fool wished to destroy traps, then she should have destroyed mine!” Dox shouted, “For this card is known as Staunch Defender! It will switch any attack to Dark Guardian, so if you were planning to attack my brother when his defenses were down, you are out of luck!”

But Dash was already shaking her head before he’d finished. “Duh, I already knew that you’d have a card to cover him, which I why I blew up the card he had to cover you! My next target is Dark Guardian!”

“How?!” Dox barked, “Even with Metalmorph, your monsters just don’t have the points!”

“I see you have completely forgotten me,” Rarity said, smoothly inserting herself back into the conversation, “The two of you aren’t the only ones who understand how to work as a team. I use the Enthusiastic Tailor!”

“For the low cost of five hundred life points, I can instantly adorn any of Rainbow Dash’s monsters with one of my spells. And I believe Victory Viper could do with a touch of United We Stand!”

“No! Not that card!” both of her opponents cried in dismay.

“You mocked my jet’s attack points,” Rainbow said as her Viper began to glow with a pearly-white light, “But Rarity’s card gives Viper eight hundred attack points for each monster I have, and unless my count is off, my field is full! And for the record, the Option token Viper made a few turns back gets the same boost that Viper does!”

“Two monsters with fifty-two hundred attack points?!” Para gasped, throwing his arms up as if to ward off what he was seeing.

The two girls pointed at their respective opponents and shouted in unison, “Attack!”. All five of Rainbow’s jets quit their idle circling and fell into formation with the shinning Victory Viper at the head. They rose straight up into the sky and peeled off, each jet's gun barrels glowing bright as they prepared to unleash a game ending barrage on their target.

"I cannot believe you have forced us this far," Dox exclaimed, swiping his hand to his last card, "But this is far enough! I activate Twin Twister. For the mere cost of one card, I destroy both United We Stand and Metalmorph!"

"Um, what?!" Rainbow sputtered in disbelief. Above, a pair of cyclones spiraled out of the clouds and disrupted the flight pattern of her jets. All of them came out the other end just fine, but the energetic glow around her Victory Viper and Option token and the metallic sheen from Lord British had disappeared completely. Worse yet, none of her machines had deviated from their attack in the slightest.

Para spread his hands into the air and laughed. "This is the end! Smash yourselves on Dark Guardian and deliver to us victory!"

"Not while I have Battle Fader, you ruffians!" Rarity shouted, slapping the card onto her field. A strange creature reminiscent of a pendulum appeared on her side of the field in a burst of light. It swung its arm in a single arc as the large bell on the end rang out a single toll that seemed to somehow push the air all around the field for a second. The diving jets wobbled in the displaced air and broke off, returning to their earlier circles around the duel field.

"What is going on?" Dox demanded, "Staunch Defender should have forced your monsters to attack, whether they wanted to or not! Why has their attack been cut short?"

"Because I have ended the battle phase, that's why," Rarity explained patiently. She arched an eyebrow over her shoulder at her partner. "No hard feelings, darling, but it didn't look like you were going to make it out of that one."

Rainbow Dash wiped the bullets of sweat from her brow and covered for it with a cocky grin. "Yeah, maaaaybe I did jump into that a little too quickly. But I've got a pretty good back-up plan raring to go! First I'll play Into the Void, which let's me draw a new card. And then I'll use a little number I like to call Exchange!"

"Are you trying to steal our cards?" Para asked, looking down at his hand as if he could parse out the card she wanted to take.

"Nah, I don't want any of your cards," Rainbow Dash said dismissively. She turned around and gave her partner a smile. "Can I, Rares?"

"Of course you may, darling!" Rarity said extravagantly, holding out her hand. Dash selected one with barely a glance through the options, and then held up her own clutch of cards. The fashionista gave them a quick once-over and then her attention snapped back to one card in particular. "Wait, that one? Are you sure?"

Rainbow Dash nodded. "Yeah, that one. I know you can put it to good use."

Rarity bit her lip and nodded, then took the card.

"If you are about done...?" Dox growled impatiently.

Dash turned back to her opponent and flexed her hands in anticipation. "Don't you worry, I'm not done yet. I'll use Flint Lock's special skill to attach Flint to your Guardian, so it can't attack us anymore. And now for the other effect of Into the Void... I discard all the cards in my hand!"

Both brothers burst out into eerily synchronized laughter, and Dox pointed a mocking finger in her direction. "What a terrible draw! You even got rid of the precious card your partner gave you! Have you decided to surrender to the inevitable?"

"Nah, just putting all my trust in my friend!" Dash returned, giving Rarity a thumbs up.

Para spat over the side of the arena and draw his card with more force than was necessary. "Well, let us see if your optimism can survive until the end of my turn. I begin with Magical Stone Excavation. By discarding two cards I can return Fairy Meteor Crush to my hand. Next I will remove the Rose Witch I discarded for my last spell from the grave to activate my next spell, Mark of the Rose!"

“What’s mine is yours, brother,” Dox said. Behind him, a tattoo in the shape of a rose blossomed on the Dark Guardian’s chest. It rose up and revolved around the field until it was at Para’s back. The platform shook when it settled back onto its feet again.

"From now on, the Dark Guardian is my monster on my turn, and returns to my brother on his!" Para explained, selecting yet more cards from his hand. "I shall equip him with Fairy Meteor Crush, and then I will use De-Spell to get rid of your pesky Flint! Now there is nothing stopping me from putting an end to this duel!"

The Guardian strained its muscles against the chain binding it until the chain burst into fragments. It stretched it's arms a little bit as if to relieve soreness, then readied it's axe for a mighty swing. Rainbow's spell spat a tine decoy plane out to block it's attack, but the beast was more than prepared and swung at it like a baseball player about to slug one out of the park.

"Tsk!" Rarity hissed, thrusting out a hand at her trap again. "Enthusiastic Tailor let's me give that little plane a bit of dressing in the form of Laminate Armor!"

The shell of the little plane grew bulky and hard, making it very difficult for the little craft to stay airborne, but fortunately it didn't have to stay up for very long. The Dark Guardian split the machine in two with a single blow, it's brand new armor offering only the barest of resistance. The two halves detonated and sent a shock wave of wind that shook the hanging platform violently enough to bring the two girls to their knees.

"I could have sacrificed the armor to save the plane, but it didn't look nearly as flattering as I thought it would," Rarity said, climbing back to her feet. "Besides, the token wasn't going to last the turn anyway, I suppose."

"Make your jokes," Para declared, dropping his remaining two cards into his trap zone. "You are barely hanging on by a thread! I will end my turn here, and leave it to my brother to finish off these fools!"

"Leave it to me, brother!" Dox said with eager determination.

Rarity sniffed. "Did you two somehow forget that my turn is next?"

"No, we just do not care!" Para declared, activating one of his traps. The card at his feet flipped up and shone brightly as a menacing looking pot floated out of it. A sickly green mist started to flow out of the pot’s open top.

“We have been paying very close attention to your deck this whole duel, and it is useless without equip spells. Anti-Spell Fragrance forces each of us to play our spells face down for a turn before we can use them. So whatever play you may have been forming has been rendered useless before it even began!"

Dox picked up his brother’s speech. “And without them, I doubt there is a monster in your deck powerful enough to defeat our mighty Guardian! There are no moves left for you to make!” The two brothers threw back their heads and laughed. The jewels on their earrings shown with an eager red light.

Rarity let slip a small smile and held aloft the one card she'd been holding on to. "Normally you would have been right, brutish as your phrasing may be. But did you forget that this card here was a gift from Rainbow Dash?"

The two brothers slowly stopped laughing.

"Now I will summon the monster I was entrusted with and show the two of you what real teamwork looks like." Rarity shouted. "Cyber Eltanin!"

Every one of Rainbow Dash's five jets quit their circling and shot straight up, disappearing into the thick clouds. There was a rumble that almost sounded like an enormous beast growling and a gigantic gleaming form descended. It looked nothing less than a great dragon's head constructed out of futuristic machines, and it dwarfed the tiny suspended platform it hung above. Miniature rockets also shaped like dragon heads swam through the air around the machine like planets around a sun, and as the whole thing came fully clear of the clouds those rockets swarmed into frenzied action.

Each head let loose a continuous stream of laser destruction from their mouths, firing it all directions randomly. The beams pierced the clouds over and over and stirred the elements into even greater fury, until it seemed they were dueling in the center or a raging hurricane. Lightning flashed, thunder roared, and the platform swayed enough to nearly send all its occupants flying off into the abyss. The Dark Guardian was not spared any of this turmoil, taking quite a few blasts from all angles. The beast roar with impotence as the storm of weather and energy caught it up and sent it spiraling away to its destruction.

"Impossible!" Dox screamed in horror. "The Dark Guardian cannot be destroyed by battle of any kind! How is this possible!"

"Cyber Eltanin is the best trump card a girl can have!" Rainbow Dash crowed, throwing up her arms. She seemed truly invigorated by the raging storm around her. "Bringing him out removes all monsters on the field from play, not matter how big they are. Plus it empties out all the monsters in mine and Rarity's graveyards, and each machine it removes give it five hundred attack points!"

Para gasped and staggered backwards. "But you have been filling up your graveyard since the duel began!"

"Not that it seems to matter to anyone," Rarity continued, pouting a little that RD was stealing her thunder a little, "But I'm also summoning The Cruel Kritik as well, to deal with those pesky decoy tokens, which are still getting in my way Rainbow Dash! And that should be enough to put an end to it!"

Her fiend appeared and immediately jumped into the air, swinging its fan blade at a tiny plane that struggled its way out of the clouds. It destroyed the plane and fell back to the platform with a satisfied look on its face. High above, the main head of Eltanin had been gathering energy in its cavernous mouth. When the demon fell clear it unleashed the energy in a pulse of light which engulfed the field and banished the ill weather, returning peace to the field like the dawning sun after a storm.

Both duelists shouted in pain as they were driven off their feet by the assault. On his way down, Para slammed his back hard into the control panel on the railing of the platform, which began emitting sparks and a small line of smoke. Then the two of them hit the floor and their earrings shattered with tiny crystalline cracks.

The effect was immediate. Rainbow Dash’s field spell was already fading away when the duel ended, but something else in the air was disappearing as well. The walls appeared to shimmer for a moment before becoming sharper than they’d been and a heaviness that they hadn’t noticed before seemed to roll off their shoulders. Suddenly the castle felt less oppressive and the room less cavernous. The pit was still deep below them, but they could now make out the bottom of it and the ceiling was now clearly visible.

“Looks like whatever magic they were talking about has ended,” Rarity said thoughtfully, looking around.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said, turning around until something caught his eye, “Wait, look up there!”

There was a viewing area along the wall nearby and another duel appeared to be going on over there. As they watched, a dragon made of guns or something reared back and unleashed a blast from its barrel that blew a Thousand Dragon to pieces. A very familiar figure reeled back from the blast and struck his head against the barrier. He slumped along it as the mech rose up threateningly over him, apparently about to blow him over the edge and into the abyss.

“Spike!” Rarity cried out in horror and reflexively slamming another card into her disk, “Crimes Against Fashion, save him!”

Rolls of cloth shot out from behind her and wrapped around the dragon just as its gun barrel began to glow. The dragon struggled but was pulled away from its target, its attack firing harmlessly aside.

Rarity started to ask how they could get up there, looking at the sparking controls that would have extended the bridges, but Rainbow didn’t even pause for a moment. She took a running start, planted her foot on the railing on the platform, and leapt off into space. She practically flew and cleared the wall with inches to spare. She rolled with the landing and came up with her duel disk at the ready.

“Oh, you have got to be kidding me…” Rarity muttered, glancing one last wishful time at the control panel, but then ran and jumped herself. She couldn’t quite get the height Rainbow did, but she just barely managed to grab the edge when she hit and with only minor difficulty pull herself over. She immediately scooped Spike up and held him protectively to her chest.

“R-Rarity…?” Spike asked, still groggy from the blow he’d taken.

“What’s all this?” Spike’s opponent asked, a large, intimidating man with an American bandana tied over his hair. He glanced over at the suspended platform and spat in disgust. “So even those two failed. Is no one strong enough to serve Master Sombra?”

“How dare you do this to Spiky-Wiky?” Rarity shouted at him, incensed.

Bandit Keith turned his attention back to the two of them and sneered. “We were in the middle of something, you little twerps. Now be good girls and wait until I’ve crushed this boy and turned him into a loyal servant. Then I’ll deal with you.”

“As if we’d let you do that to him!” Rainbow shouted, thrusting her disk out at him, “We’re cutting into this duel!”

Keith spat out a laugh and grinned with manic glee. “All right then, little lambs. I’ll crush you as easily as I have him!”

…

The air around the top of the castle shimmered and seemed to lose some kind of magical quality, but all but one of the people there were too wrapped up in the end of the duel to have noticed.

“Aw man, I can’t believe how close that was!” Joey exclaimed, laying his palm over his chest and taking exaggerated breaths, “That took a few years offa my life-”

The rest of his breath came out in a wumph as Pinkie charged across the field and gave him a rib-cracking hug. “THAT WAS INCREADIBLE! I’ve never seen anyone with that kind of luck before! We must to duel again sometime! Are you ever on the internet simulators?! You HAVE to give me your account number! I’ll duel you anytime!”

“… My… spine…!” Joey gasped, her arms squeezing him tighter than an anaconda.

Mai coughed into her fist and spoke calmly without looking up. “If you don’t mind, Joey, maybe the two of you should get off the field so the next duel can start?”

Joey’s eyes shot up and he somehow managed to extract himself from Pinkie’s hug. “That’s right, we still gotta get that card back from Bakura!”

The man in question started to laugh and Joey made an angry face at him. “What’s so funny, huh?”

“You are, of course,” Bakura said and spread his arms. “This little tournament has been fun, but it’s over. Young Twilight is the only duelist left on her side and there is no way Yugi will lose to her. She will never have the chance to challenge me!”

Yugi had been looking thoughtfully at the doorway leading back into the castle, but at Bakura’s words he turned back and smiled smugly. “Actually, I think I’m going for a walk. Why don’t you duel her instead?”

The smile instantly was wiped from Bakura’s face. “What are you talking about? It’s your turn to duel!”

“Actually, as I recall,” the Pharaoh said, “We only had to fight in order on the first round. After that we could duel in any order as long as there were two or more teammates left. So I’m going to let you take this one.”

Bakura growled as Yugi started to walk away. “Oh yeah? Well I could do the same, you know. The only thing keeping me here was the fun of watching you all struggle, but I can leave at any time myself.”

“I think not,” Pegasus interrupted, stepping into Bakura’s way as he made to go after Yugi. “As the organizer of this tournament, it would look badly on me if it ended with one side leaving. And are you so afraid of her that you’d run away with your tail between your legs rather than face her openly?”

Bakura smirked and stalked right up into his face. "Do you really believe I'm afraid of you? Perhaps you've somehow forgotten what happened the last time you got in my way? I can walk out of this building at any time I want!"

"Perhaps this then," Twilight interrupted. The two men turned to her and stiffened, because she was holding up her Solis Tia. "You seem to like powerful cards. I'll wager mine against yours, winner take all. Is that enough to keep you here?"

Bakura wavered, but temptation won out and he spun around to stalk onto the duel field. “Well, now it has become interesting!" he grinned, "And I can get some more practice with my new card out of it too. But this is your gambit, Yugi. Once I win, you'll have no choice but to let me leave in peace!”

The Pharaoh considered his words and shrugged, evidently knowing something the white-haired boy didn't.

Twilight caught Yugi’s arm as he passed her and gave him a nod. “Thank you for this.”

Yugi returned her smile. “Get your card back, and then we will have our duel,” he said, confident in her, and then marched off and vanished into the castle.

Twilight watched him go and then turned her attention to the opponent she was about to face. “Get ready, because you won’t have Discord for much longer!”

“Come and get it then!” Bakura sneered, activating his duel disk with a snap of his wrist, “But I don’t think it’s going to be as easy as you think!”