Yu-Gi-Oh E-Quest: Malefic Wars

by DakariKingMykan

Episode 29: Work up, Perk Up, Jerk Up

EPISODE TWENTY-NINE

Loki was positively outraged as he re-watched the images of Shining Armor stepping in to get zapped by the lightning, and turned into a card.

“I can’t believe it!” he growled. “I mean how close can we come to finally being rid of that pest, Sunset.”

What really aggravated him was that Celestia had dueled so hard, and nearly lost; now it was all wasted time and effort.

“…Calm yourself, brother!” said Rubeus. “It wasn’t a total loss. We still managed to secure a vast amount of power.” he motioned over at the generator which was glowing so brightly, you’d almost need to wear shades to get close to it.

Loki sighed, “I suppose so.”

He thought about it deeply, “…And come to think of it, now we know for certain that Celestia is practically unfathomable. If she could defeat Sunset Shimmer, then the others should be easy pickings.”

“Agreed.” said Rubeus “And they still have no idea of what else is out there waiting for them either.” he referred to The Trio being out there, with new cards.

Shining Armor’s card lay before Sci-Twi’s knee on the ground as she and Cadance were lost in their sobbing sorrows.

Princess Twilight had tears flowing down her face too. “I’m so sorry…” she peeped softly.

Spike said nothing. He just remained silent, still, and looked disheartened inside his card.

“I can’t believe it!” cried Pinkie. “I can’t believe he did that!”

Rainbow bowed her head with her eyes shut tight, and her clenched fists were shaking.

The Titans all felt just as crushed, even Raven did.

“Why did he do that?” asked Kori.

“He did it for his friends.” replied Dick. “He wanted to spare them both from losing their souls.”

The sadness was interrupted by a huge roar from Celestia. She looked mighty outraged.

“How dare he?!” she growled. “How dare that fool get in my way. I was so close to destroying Sunset for good!”

“That fool was your adopted nephew-in-law!” shouted Terra. “Aren’t you even the least bit upset about it?”

“Obviously… she isn’t.” said Raven.

Vic was really feeling upset inside. Such a beautiful woman, going so evil like this was almost too much for him to bear.

Then he looked at the other end of the field where Sunset was supposed to be.

“…She’s gone!”

Everyone looked, even Sci-Twi and Cadance looked up, and Sunset was indeed missing from where she lay on the ground after the duel ended.

Her duel disk and her cards were all missing too. All that remained was a small silhouette of Sunset’s body in the sand, but no footprints to indicate she had run off anywhere.

“Whaaaaaat?!” thundered Celestia.

She began to have an idea of where to start looking for Sunset, and she quickly hopped on a travel cloud of her own.

“We’ll meet again, duelists!” she hollered as she flew away in a raging fit.

The group didn’t know what to really think about her.

She was still Celestia, yet she was evil now, but for now they had so much more to consider, like figuring out what happened to Sunset.

Sunset found herself standing in a strange place.

“Where am I?” she wondered. “Last thing I remember, I was dueling Celestia… and then all went blank.”

She hardly remembered much or even how the duel ended.

“I remember… I was dueling so hard, and then I--” she remembered how she felt she was slipping away badly, and the rest was a total blank.

She looked all around her and realized she was once again in that strange dark realm, only much of it was now lit up.

She was still surrounded by long darkness, but the misty floor was now more visible. She found herself standing on dark tiles, like a cathedral.

Large stone columns surrounded all ways like a perfect ring. Each had a flame lit at the top like a big torch, and in between every other section of columns were statures, each resembling one of Sunset’s dragons.

“What is all this?” she wondered. “I never saw all this before.”

Then, ahead of her, lay a small stairway leading to a large altar. Standing atop it were three large other statues.

The largest one in the center seemed to represent that of a strange looking sorcerer.

To each of his sides were two stone carvings of monsters; one representing the large Zero, and the other representing the mark of Infinity.

Sunset gazed at all in all in the deepest of awe.

“Sunset…!” Rainbow shouted out. Her voice echoed all over the lands, but there was no answer.

“SUNSET SHIMMER…!” Pinkie yelled. Her voice echoed harder than Rainbow’s.

Raven picked her ear. “Yeah… um… Not working.”

“Maybe she was spirited away by some kind of magic.” suggested Vic. “We all were once. Remember when we were all separated?”

Everyone remembered that, being caught in those strong winds that blew them in different ways across the land.

Pinkie rubbed her bottom. “I still have a bruise from my crash-landing.”

Terra then asked to Sci-Twi, “What should we do, Twi--” she stopped when she noticed both Sci-Twi and Cadance were still lost in despair.

Princess Twilight and Spike had no idea what to say or do.

Kori walked over to the despairing ladies and placed her hand on their shoulders.

“We’ll get him back. That’s a promise.”

Sci-Twi rubbed her eyes from under her glasses, and slowly got up onto her feet.

Cadance was still down on her knees as she softly grabbed her husband’s soul card off the ground.

“Come on, Cadance.” Sci-Twi said while holding her hand out to her. “It won’t help to sit here and cry about it. We’ve got to find where the Brothers are. Find them, and we’ll get my brother back, as well as the others.”

Cadance wanted to believe that, but after everything that had just happened, and now Sunset disappearing as well, she honestly didn’t know what to think.

“So much has been happening, and it just keeps getting worse instead of better.”

It was impossible to argue with her there.

“I just don’t think I can bear it anymore. If we keep going, what’s to say more of us will end up like my husband-- turned into a card… or even worse!” she referred to Celestia being evil, and Sunset disappearing without explanation.

“Are you saying we should just give up?” asked Spike. “Let me tell you something; even though I’m trapped in this card, I never gave up hope, and I know the rest of you didn’t give up either. So why do it now?”

“He’s right.” agreed Twilight “Remember, it’s not just your friends that are at stake, but the whole world that we all know, and other worlds beyond that, including my own world of Equestria.”

Cadance still didn’t feel sure, and that’s when Vic came along. “Look, there’s one way to get us moving along.” And he swiftly scooped her up, carrying her over his shoulder.

“Hey, what the--”

“Let’s go.” Vic said to the others, and they all agreed with him. There was no sense in sitting around beating the bush.

They all started walking with Cadance still seeming unimpressed.

“I think I know what’s really eating you.” said Kori. “You feel helpless because you haven’t been able to do much to help out.”

Cadance didn’t respond, and everyone took her stunned silence as a “Yes.” What else was there to believe? Cadance wasn’t even a duelist, and ever since all the trouble and danger started, all she really had done was sit on the sidelines and cheer on or worry for her friends.

It never felt like enough.

“Aw, don’t go around beating yourself like that.” said Pinkie. “True, you don’t duel, you don’t battle, you’ve never leapt in the face of danger to save lives before…” she quickly stopped before she said something to make Cadance feel worse.

“The point is…” said Rainbow. “You’re just as important to us as any other, and we’re not willing to give up.”

The others all nodded in agreement.

Vic set Cadance down on her own feet.

“Come on, girl. I know it’s rough, but that’s what being a hero all is about. It comes with a few, seemingly hopeless times, but you can sit around and mope about it and let the bad guys win or you can use it to push you to strive up and keep going until you find a way to win.”

Cadance looked down at her husband’s card again, and remembered that while he, too, was no duelist or fighter, he still put himself in danger to save Sunset-- even though she was now gone too.

“I’ll try.” she said. “But I really don’t like this.”

“You think we do?” said Raven.

Cadance felt good enough to keep on going anyway, which was a good start, and Princess Twilight was pleased in this boost of friendship to fuel the courage and determination.

Sci-Twi had also gained a new inspiration and courage herself.

She approached Terra and asked to be given Applejack’s duel disk.

“What?” asked Terra.

“That’s right. No more sidelines for me either. It’s time I got back in the game.”

“But wait, you don’t have your deck with you.” Rainbow pointed out.

Sci-Twi was well-aware as she attached the disk round her risk. “There’s three other decks though.” she referred to Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy’s decks; each one stacked differently and followed one of three of the summoning methods-- Fusion, Synchro, and Xyz.

“Somehow, I should be able to combine all this, and some of the cards we’ve found to make myself a new, and temporary deck.”

That was settled, but still… everyone couldn’t help but wonder what happened to Sunset.

Celestia burst into to the Brothers’ main chamber bellowing. “Where is she? What happened to Sunset Shimmer?”

Loki and Rubeus had been trying their hardest, but they could no longer locate Sunset anywhere in the entire Malefic World.

“Calmness, my pet.” said Loki. “We know exactly what has happened to Sunset Shimmer.”

Celestia practically raced over, nearly tripping over her robes. “Where is she?! Tell me! I have a score to settle with her, and I shall not rest until she is a measly card sitting in my deck.”

“Silence!” snapped Rubeus. “I realize how much of an outrage this is for you, but this is actually a better opportunity for us.

In the meantime, there is still much to be done.”

He looked back towards the generator. “The time has come to begin our ultimate conquest; to plunge all worlds into the total darkness and wipe out all light and love there is.”

He motioned for his brother to join him by his side.

“Excuse me, darling.” Loki said excusing himself from Celestia.

Celestia was still brooding, still wanting to know exactly where Sunset was and to finish her off for good.

That’s when she had another memory attack, and her images were becoming clearer and clearer.

There she was smiling, laughing, and having fun with all her friends on school picnics, and summer vacations in the past.

“Why does this keep happening to me?!” she groaned in thought. “I’ve got to stop these memories from plaguing me.”

Loki was able to see out of the corner of his eye that she was struggling.

“Celestia, are you alright?” he asked, pretending to be concerned, when really he knew what was going on. “Somehow her good memories are resurfacing. I cannot let her slip away from me. She is mine, and mine alone!”

He looked her deeply in the eyes, with his own eyes glowing with an eerie green light, strengthening the curse upon her.

When all was done, Celestia felt much better. All her good memories were all fogged up again, and she felt really wicked and nasty.

“…My apologies, O’, my Prince.”

Loki snickered as he softly held her chin in his hand, “You are most forgiven.”

They gazed deep into each other’s eyes, until Rubeus cleared his throat calling his brother back to him.

“Please excuse me, again.”

Celestia, though feeling nasty and evil again, was still determined to find Sunset and settle the score for good.

As for the brothers, they both stood before the massive generator.

They nodded at one another, and then raised their arms up high, infusing some of their own magic with the energy itself.

A great earthquake began to shake the lair…

The entire realm outside trembled, and the group felt it.

“What’s happening now?” asked Rainbow.

“…Feel’s like the whole world is rupturing.” said Vic, and he used his wrist-com to measure the vibrations.

He also took a glimpse at his life-force battery… it wasn’t looking too good.

“This ain’t no ordinary quake.” He scanned a little more, and pointed to a far off hill-sight. “…Over there, that’s where it’s the strongest.”

“Let’s go!” said Dick.

They all started running for the hills, and along the way, the tremors began to cease, and all was soon quiet again.

“What do you think’s happened now?” asked Kori.

“Whatever it is, we’ll find out soon.” said Rainbow.

While all this was going on, Sunset had made her way to the altar, before the statue of the sorcerer.

She thought it was an incredible work of art, but she still had no idea what it or any of the statues were for, or why she was even here to begin with.

Suddenly, her mystery card began to glow in her hand.

“How did I get this?” she wondered. “Dick got rid of it; that much I remember.”

The card seemed to be glowing near the statue of the sorcerer. He was holding a magical staff in one hand, but his other hand was completely blank, and poised as if he were holding a card in his fingers.

Sunset was nearly unsure, but something told her to place the card right there.

Once she placed the card in the statue’s fingers, the card began to glow brighter than ever, prompting her to step back several paces in fear.

Suddenly, the entire statue began to glow, as well as the two statues next to it.

Sunset began to fret, “Oh, no…! What have I done?!”

The light suddenly began so bright, she was forced to put her hand up over her eyes.

When the light dimmed down, she looked on ahead, and saw the sorcerer had come to life.

“Wow!” Sunset murmured.

She had never seen a creature quite like the sorcerer; all dark and sparkly, resembling the very cosmos itself.

Then, right before him appeared four new monster cards. All were Magicians, and all were Pendulum types.

With a wave of his mighty staff, he levitated the cards right before Sunset.

“Are you giving me these?”

The sorcerer did not speak, but he nodded at her.

Sunset viewed all her new cards with excitement, but just as she wondered why the sorcerer gave them to her, the entire place began to rumble and quake.

“Whoa! Now what’s up?” wondered Sunset.

The sorcerer began to look concerned as he gazed around him, followed by the sounds of sinister laughter.

“I know that sound!” cried Sunset. “It’s the same voice that’s been calling to me.”

That’s when she remembered, and saw the large eyes of the creature in the darkness behind the sorcerer.

“Look out!” she shouted.

The sorcerer turned round, but before he could do anything, he was zapped and bound by red, magical beams, which fired from the two statues beside him-- the Zero and the Infinity symbols.

“No, stop!!”

The creature only laughed and then called to her “You have done well to make it this far, and now the power can finally be unlocked.”

“What are you talking about? What power?”

The monster’s huge eyes began to glow, and he shot Sunset’s deck in her duel disk with a strong, glowing beam.

“Hey!” Sunset wailed.

All the dragon statues began to hiss smoke out of their nostrils, and their eyes were glowing an evil aura of the respective colors of each summoning power.

Sunset tried to run, but the beam was holding her down, and to make matters worse, every card in her deck began to fly out, flowing in circles around her.

“What’s happening?” Sunset shouted.

The sorcerer himself was suddenly changed into a card himself, and the mystery card that he held was sailing through the darkness, flying right in between the large creature’s eyes.

“No!!” wailed Sunset.

The creature only laughed, “Yes… my power is now yours, and you will serve me well!!”

Sunset screamed and wailed as everything around her started spinning in darkness, and the creature infused itself into the mystery card itself, and all went dark.

The group had finally reached the hills after running the whole way, and they were feeling pooped, especially when they made it all the way up to the top, but what they saw before them snapped them into complete and total shock!

“Am I seeing things?!” Rainbow asked in total disbelief.

Pinkie rubbed her eyes and tapped her head to make sure she was hallucinating. “Nope, I see it too.”

All the others could hardly believe what they were seeing.

“It can’t be there. It just can’t be!” said Kori.

“…But it is.” added Dick.

Down below in what would have been another vast landscape of shadowy desert and plains were the vast ruins of a large metropolis, and not just any city.

“…It’s Jump City.” murmured Raven.

“How can you tell it’s Jump City?” asked Cadance.

The Titans all pointed up ahead towards a lone area where the rotted remains of the fallen Titan’s Tower lay in ruin.

All the buildings were still just as dilapidated, just as crumpling as ever, and while the roads were no longer full of cracks and potholes, they were still laden with fallen lampposts, chunks of debris, and smashed cars and oil drums.

The very sight of it brought tears of shame to Kori’s eyes.

Vic and Dick were cringing angrily, trying to supress memories and guilt, but to no avail.

Raven and Terra didn’t even try to hold it back.

The Equestrians felt bad for the Titans; seeing the city like this and how they were largely responsible for it all, as well as causing their exile by the people, couldn’t be easy to deal with.

…Unbeknownst to the Equestrians, The Titans’ guilt ran far deeper and for other reasons as well.

“How did it all get here?” wondered Twilight.

Spike looked up into the air, “…I think that could be how.”

Everyone looked up and saw eerie green swirling portals slowly opening in the skies. On the other side of each were different cities all over the Human World.

The portals were still very small, but it was believed they would only get bigger, and bigger, and eventually swallow more cities, and spread darkness across the rest of the world too.

The streets all seemed totally deserted too. There wasn’t a sign of any of people anywhere.

“The Prince Brothers!” growled Raven. “Maybe they already turned all the people into cards.”

The very idea turned everyone’s stomachs, especially given that most of the survivors in Jump city weren’t even duelists and never picked up a card in their lives.

“They would do that? Just turn innocent people in cards without mercy?!” exclaimed Terra.

“Yeah, they would.” agreed Spike. “Look at me and Princess Twilight; we don’t duel.”

Twilight agreed, and the feeling was still just as sickening. “We’ve got to find those brothers and stop them once and for all.”

Everyone agreed, but they still had no idea where to start.

Meanwhile, deep in the city, there was at least one person wandering the streets...

Gar couldn’t believe his own eyes when the city suddenly appeared while he was wandering on his own, and you can bet his insides were going crazy.

“Of all the cities in the world…” he grumbled softly. “Why… why did it have to be here?! I never wanted to set foot in this miserable place again!”

Even with the city in its crumpling state, and no people about the memories still shot through him like burning knives.

He began to hear people laughing at him again…

He felt somebody slapping him in the face, or throwing things at him…

These were only starters.

“MASQUERADE!!” shouted a familiar voice.

He looked up just in time to see none other than Karle leaping down from a rooftop, and aiming her duel disk at him. “You’re mine!!”

She fired her duel beam at him, which he dodged by leaping backwards.

He quickly began to run through the streets.

“You’re not getting away from me this time!” growled Karle, and she began to chase after him.

Gar still hated the fact he was running away from a duel, but the fact that he knew of the situation if he tried to duel someone that couldn’t go down like others could, it was best to avoid her until he could devise a plan that would work.

He dashed up the street with Karle gaining on him.

She fired more beams at him in attempt to force him into a challenge.

“Dodge all you like, punk; you can’t avoid me forever!”

She fired another shot at him, but he leapt up onto a wrecked car, bouncing off of it and grabbing on to a strong flag pole to swing himself up higher onto a rooftop.

Karle, using her strong athletic skills, leapt up along un-evened ledges in walls to get to the same height as he was.

Far off, the group was still looking all over and through the crumpling city, when Terra saw a tiny flash of light in the distance.

“What’s that?” she wondered.

She paced forward.

“Terra?” said Dick.

“What’s up, girl?” asked Vic.

Terra looked as hard as she could, and even from far away, with loads of darkness in the distance, she saw another flash of light like an explosion, which helped her see just enough…

“Gar…!” she exclaimed. “It’s him!”

Everyone looked on ahead, and saw more explosions caused by missed beams, and they saw who was chasing him.

“It’s Karle!” wailed Rainbow.

Sci-Twi’s blood began to rage. “She must be trying to duel him again.”

Both Pinkie and Kori were seething with Rage too, remembering that Karle defeated Fluttershy.

Even though the duel had ended in a draw, the Malefic Lightning was still willing to take those who did not win the duel.

“I have no soul, therefore: even if I lose, I can never be beaten.”

“What are we just standing here for?! Let’s go!” shouted Rainbow.

She began to rush down the hill towards the city.

“Wait up!” Pinkie hollered as she chased after her.

“Let’s move!” said Dick.

Terra and Sci-Twi wanted nothing more than to find Gar and Karle especially, but Raven wasn’t so sure she wanted to see him after the way he treated everyone the last time, or other times, or especially how he bashed her hard in the tournament.

The group reached an intersection. “Wait a minute!” called Cadance, and everyone skid to a halt. “Does anyone have even the slightest idea where we’re going?”

From where they stood, the city was still massive, and Gar and Karle were clearly on the other side of town.

“Let’s try and get higher.” suggested Dick. “We’ll be able to see better from a rooftop.”

The others agreed, but suddenly from out of nowhere…

“Surprise, kiddos….” Sapphire called as he leapt through a broken shop window.

Violet came leaping down from a small roof. “Hiiiiiii…!” she playfully cooed.

Khaos mere walked in from down a road. “Well, well… we meet again.”

Features began to harden as the friends glared at the trio glaring at them.

Meanwhile, Karle had lost sight of Gar. “Come out, come out, wherever you are.” she called. “You won’t escape me!”

Gar had done well in avoiding her, and he quietly crept into a wrecked building hoping to take refuge to make a plan.

However, as he gazed down the hall and noticed many broken school lockers, fallen down doors, banged up desks, and even old faded posters.

“No…!” he peeped softly, but there was no denying it; this was the Murakami School-- what was left of it.

The very place Terra broke his heart so severely.

He was actually standing in the very hall where it happened.

He looked down by his foot and saw a single, ratty old necktie from a student uniform.

He picked it up, and he remembered those awful words Terra told him...

“Things Change, Beast Boy! The girl you want me to be is just a memory.”

Kicking him out of her life, demanding he stay away just to live her own life the way she wanted without a single regard of how it would affect him.

All he could do was respect her wishes and leave her-- run out of the school exit with a heart aching and burning, and dreams shattering into the brightness he ran into.

The exit was now blocked by bits of debris.

Gar’s hand was quaking furiously as he threw the tie away, and he almost felt weak in the knees.

“She really broke me that day!” he said to himself. “…Worse than any way anyone ever did to me before, and I’ll never forget what happened after that!

I can never forget it, but I can let it fuel me, and keep me focussed to crush all that stands in my way.”

He stood silent and still for a moment.

“Here you are!” Karle shouted from down the hall, snapping him out of his trance.

She began to rush towards him readying the duel beam to fire.

The exit was still blocked, but the windows next to him were not. Gar quickly leapt up and smashed through the shattering glass.

The blast missed again, but began to bounce and ricochet off the solid lockers in the hall.

Karle was growing angry and leapt through the window herself to see Gar was already running across the street.

The blast she had fired burst through another window, and bounced off a dented flagpole, beaming straight at Gar.

He slowly turned round and jumped out of the way just barely missing the shot as it hit the broken building next to him, causing chunks of debris to come crashing down.

Gar landed safely on his feet, only to, finally, be hit by another duel beam.

“No!!” he shouted.

He turned and looked at Karle’s nasty grinning face. “You’re all mine!”