Chapter 8: Stuck in the Middle with You

The nearly two year hiatus has been broken, somewhat. Depression can be a scary beast, which was why I was gone for so long, I hope y'all can forgive me and enjoy the chapter and the many more that will soon come.

Thank you.

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"Well, looks like I'm stuck with you," Duke grumbled, eying Tristan. The two young men were sitting inside a long hallway that seemed endless, fashioned of stone tiles and wooden paneled walls. Small chandeliers dotted the ceiling every twenty or so feet, making the corridor well lit.

"Gee thanks," Tristan replied sarcastically.

Duke experimentally leaned against the wall, testing its durability. "Huh, it feels like a real wall." He rapped on it with his knuckles. "Sounds like one too."

"Well what did you expect?"

Duke shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not quite sure actually," he admitted. "There's just,. . .just something about this place that creeps me out. I don't know what it is, but for a virtual world. . .I wish I could place it."

"Yeah, now that you mentioned it, it does give me the creeps too." Tristan suddenly thought of something. "Wait, if we're weirded out by this place, then imagine how the others feel."

"Like Serenity?" Duke asked in horror.

"Yeah."

"We need to get to her before they do." Duke looked down both ends of the corridor. "Which way you want to go?"

Tristan mulled it over. "Eenie meenie, minie mo. . ." he began, rapidly pointing.

"Not that way you idiot!"

"Fine. We'll do that way." Tristan jabbed a finger to his right.

"Just as long as it gets us out of here."

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He raged and fumed as he floated bout in cyber space, nothing more than a series of matrices and binary code It was like limbo, a place between reality and nothing, like the event horizon of a black hole. He was no longer human but something you could hammer out on a keyboard and spit on on printer paper. This made him furious. All the calculations had pointed to an easy victory. He was supposed to beat the girl easily. Everything was supposed to be in his favor, then that blasted wretch of a woman showed up and ruined all of his plans.

Nezbitt would find a way out of this cyber hell, Noa be damned.

Leichter had already claimed the opportunity to duel Seto Kaiba and the others had competed and lost as well.

But there were others still wandering the Virtual Realm, vulnerable victims to fall prey to his machines, his perfect machines.

Nezbitt gathered himself, literally, reforming the bits of data and code that made him up, into what he had been before, before they cheated him out of a victory. Nezbitt flexed his fingers, testing to make sure that everything was there in its proper place. He could sense the presence of the others in the Virtual World as well. "It would seem that they have the same plan as me," Nezbitt remarked. "Besides, Noa gave a shoddy deal in the first place. But unlike them, I will actually succeed, like I should have."

Nezbitt stepped out of the limbo, back into the Virtual World. He was in a airport hangar, filled with his delightful machines. The air shimmered about him, the concrete sizzling and smoldering with each step. He would win in the end; he always did.

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Duke leaned against the wall with one hand, panting. "We've been running around forever. We'll never get out of here at this rate."

Tristan sagged against the wall, utterly exhausted. "You got another idea?"

Duke shook his head. "No, not really."

Tristan frowned. "There's gotta be something. . ." From the corner of his eye, Tristan caught the glint of something metallic. There was a suit of armor gripping an axe in its gauntlets. "You know what I say?"

"Do I want to know?"

Tristan went over to the axe, wresting the weapon free. He swung the weapon at the wall. "We'll make our own exit instead!"

"I have to admit, that's a smart idea." Duke trotted down the hall, retrieving his own blade from a nearby statue. Both men swung at the wall in rhythm. Chips of the wall fell away at first, an encouraging sign. They swung harder at the wall. Bits went flying at their faces and they continued their assault, until shafts of sunlight peaked through. Tristan kicked through the wall, bricks and mortar tumbling down around them.

"It worked," Duke said, peering through the hole, blinking owlishly in the bright sunlight. "One of your crazy ideas actually worked."

"Hey," Tristan huffed rather indignantly, crossing his arms. "I'm a lot smarter than you think."

"That's laughable." Duke grumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Their improvised exit opened out to a balcony of a medieval castle. They stumbled over the pile of debris to get a better gauge of their surroundings. The castle overlooked a grassy plain, dotted with small groves of trees. A lake bordered the outer walls while gray stone walls surrounded them. "Okay, so now we're trapped on a gigantic ass balcony," Duke remarked. "Got any other ideas?"

"What? I just got us out of that hallway!" Tristan exclaimed angrily, gesturing behind him. "You should be thanking me!"

Duke crossed his arms. "But now we're trapped here so, now we're out of the frying pan and into the fire."

"Who says that any more?" Tristan exclaimed, hands above his head in irritation. "What do you want me to do?"

Duke looked over Tristan's door, pointing. "Maybe we could go through that door."

"What are you even talking about-," Tristan spun around, finding himself face-to-face with a black wooden door. "Who the hell leaves a door in the middle of nowhere?"

"Apparently somebody did."

Tristan peered around the back of the door frame, finding nothing. "It's like somebody just decided to drop off a door right here for kicks and giggles." He reached for the brass door knob. "Let's open it."

"Tristan, this is a Virtual World made by a psychotic twelve-year-old. Do you really think that opening it is the best idea?"

"Maybe it can get us off this stupid balcony. Because I'm not taking a nose dive to get out of here."

"I got an idea." Duke wandered over to the pile of rubble, picking up a fist sized stone. "Let's try this. We'll get on either side of the door and you open it. Then I'll throw the rock in there, in case Noa plans something."

Tristan eyed Duke skeptically. "Alright. . .but why do I have to open the door?"

"'Cuz you just said that you were going to open it!"

"Right." Tristan went to go stand on one side, Duke on the other side. Tristan tentatively reached out for the door knob, his body leaning back as far as he could. The door knob jiggled and the door clicked open. It swung inwards, revealing what looked to be an airplane hangar. Duke peeked inside, flinging the stone inside like it was a skipping rock. It struck the concrete floor with a ping, before skittering out of sight under a small, single engine airplane. The area was dimly lit, with some fluorescent lights hanging from the corrugated metal ceiling. A half dozen small planes were parked within, three on each side.

"Looks like the coast is clear." Duke said. He cautiously stuck a foot past the threshold, tensing up involuntarily as he waited for the worst. But there was nothing and he relaxed. Duke crept inside, before waving the all clear. Tristan followed shortly behind, looking about. The hangar doors were closed and ambient light from the outdoors—presumably it was outdoors—shone through underneath, somewhat illuminating the building. It was cavernous, their voices echoing to all the different corners of the hangar.

"For now," Tristan added, apprehensive.

"Then you would be correct," A voice boomed from the far end of the hangar.

Both men spun around, nearly jumping out of their skin. "Who's there?" Duke nervously called out.

"Way to sound tough there," Tristan said.

"Shut up."

"I am Nezbitt and I will be your opponent." The sound of metal clanking on concrete rang harshly in their ears. An airplane was shoved aside as if it were nothing, revealing a robot at least eight feet tall, dressed in red and gold armor. Epaulets sat on his shoulders, holding up a metal facsimile of a blue sash pinned with medals.

"This plan went from 'hey we might get out of here' to 'Aw Hell'," Duke grumbled to Tristan.

"Real classy, blaming this on me."

"Such petty squabbling," Nezbitt scolded condescendingly. "It will be easy taking apart you idiots."

"Pfft, yeah right," Duke scoffed. "Besides we aren't even-" Duke stopped as a Duel Disk showed up on his forearm inexplicably. "Never mind."

"I have no mood for your frivolities," Nezbitt snarled. "I choose myself, the Machine King, as my Deck Master."

"Then I'll choose Strike Ninja!" Duke answered, tapping on a card on the screen

"And I'll have Super Roboyarou for mine," Tristan added.

"Now duel!"

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Noa eyed the screens with a curious eye. This was unexpected. He knew that sooner or later, one of the Big Five, if not all of them, would make an attempt to rescind on their deal. Not that he minded; he enjoyed these type of games. It had been far too long since he played them with anybody. According to Noa's rather esteemed opinion, Nezbitt was a bit of a masochist. Apparently, the first time being absolutely trounced wasn't enough for him. He had to go back for more.

Maybe this time he researched this "Duke" and "Tristan".

Crump did it as well, but it ended poorly for him.

"We'll see how this one goes then," Noa mused thoughtfully. "This could be quite amusing."

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"First things first: we should find a way out of here," Yugi began, scanning the factory. "There should be some sort of exit out of here."

"What about the door you guys came from?" Serenity asked.

Tea rapped on the wall, trying to listen for a hollow ring it but all she could hear was the heavy thunk of thick metal. There was nothing but solid metal and concrete foundations underneath her fingertips. "Guys, I got some bad news. The door's gone."

"How does a door completely vanish like that?" Mai huffed, crossing her arms. "Never mind, I think I know."

"So now what do we do?" Serenity inquired, worry plain upon her face.

"We'll find another exit," Mai reassured her. "There has to be. After all that was how Nezbitt got here-" She spotted a pair of massive sliding doors, made of steel, on the far end of the factory. "We could use those."

"Those look a little big. . ." Yugi said falteringly, hugging himself. "It might be a trap."

"Sadly, we don't have any other options." Tea shook her head. "I vote that we open it. Besides, we have two duelists in case anything goes wrong." She shot Yugi a meaningful look and Mai raised an eyebrow, intrigued.

They ducked and wove their way through the veritable labyrinth of cauldrons, conveyer belts and the support beams that littered the place. Some of the struts were rusted through, barring their path and forcing them to find other ways around the obstacle, sometimes over it, sometimes under it. It was sweltering, forcing Mai at one point to pull off her jacket and drape it over her shoulder. The doors were massive things, built for allowing machinery to slide in and out, picking up or dropping off their wares. There appeared to be no obvious way to open it either. Rust insidiously crept along the cracks and openings, preventing any means of just sliding the door open.

Tea mulled it over as Mai and Yugi made attempts to tug at the doors, hoping that the rust would fall off in sheets. It was clear that it wasn't built for being pulled open. There had to be a mechanism somewhere. Tea glanced upwards to find her answer. There were a series of chains and pulleys, reminding her of bicycle chains. To her left was a massive lever mounted to an electrical box, the bar caked over from years of dust, cobwebs and rust. Tea shuddered. It was going to be very disgusting, pulling that lever, but she squared herself and went over anyway. She brushed away at the cobwebs, grimacing as the cobwebs slid across her skin. The lever was stubborn, refusing to budge but Tea was strong from her years of fitness and ballet. She wasn't going to let something so puny beat her.

A horrendous squeal tore through the air as the lever began to slowly go down and Tea continued to tug at it. Yugi and Mai, who had been inspecting the door, jumped back, startled. There was a hiccupy growl as the electrical box strained to come to life. The chains were squealing and rattling and eventually the box purred to life, the chains inching ever so much, pulling the doors open with a screech, sending up puffs of dust and vaporized rust as it went.

"Jeez!" Mai gasped. "You scared us Tea."

"Sorry. I found the lever and thought, 'why not'?"

"Well, it worked," she coughed, waving away the plumes of dust.

The world outside the smelting factory wasn't much better. The air was filled with smoke and smog, giving the air a dusty gray and almost orange hue. Smokestacks stood like monoliths amongst the factories and dirty streets as they belched soot and smoke that landed everywhere, coating the buildings with the pale gray ash. They has stepped into the industrial district of a city. But all the noises that were associated with this part of town were nonexistent. No trucks, no people, not even the rumbling of machines inside the factories.

It was silent.

"This place is giving me the creeps," Tea admitted.

"No kidding. It's a little too quiet for my tastes," Mai said. "like he's planning something." She turned to Yugi. "Yugi, you said something about Noa had set up obstacles to hinder you getting to Tea."

Yugi did not like where this was going. "Yes. . . You think he's planning something, don't you?"

Mai nodded.

Yugi reached for the switch on his disk, the technology stirring and whirling to life. Mai did the same shortly therefore. "Be careful," Yami advised him.

"I will. Mai's got a point. Noa could be planning something."

In his mind's eye, he could see the Pharaoh raising an eyebrow. "You trust her judgment?"

"What are you implying?"

"She has been on edge since we arrived. Perhaps her instinct is clouded by emotions."

"We're all on edge, Pharaoh. She's not any different."

"But she is more so. You saw how she continued to attack Johnson after the duel was finished. She is under a lot of stress, with Battle City and now this. Mai could be well. . .," the Pharaoh hesitated, fumbling for the right words. "Emotionally compromised."

Yugi was surprised by his frankness, echoing the same words that Yugi had been thinking, but unwilling to admit. "It's better to be safe and sorry." he finished the conversation with that, leaving the Pharaoh to think.

They snuck through the complex, listening for anything that maybe out of the ordinary, but there was no other sound save their own feet hitting the asphalt. No monsters, no traps of any sort. Either Noa was waiting for the opportune moment or he was busy with something else.

Tea's voice broke the silence. "Anything?"

The two blondes shook their heads. "Not from what I can tell," Yugi answered.

"Same," Mai added.

"I hope Tristan and Duke are alright," Serenity said worriedly, wringing her hands.

"I'm sure they'll be able to take care of themselves," Mai comforted her.

"I hope so. . ."

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"You two are the most pathetic excuses for duelists I have ever seen!" Nezbitt mocked. Tristan and Duke had been backpedaling the entire duel. At one point, they had a chance to win when Duke played Dimension Dice and summoned the monster Orgoth the Relentless, but that had only been a pipe dream when it was destroyed the following turn by Nezbitt, who had since morphed from Machine Knight to Perfect Machine King. "I have dueled children better than you!"

Duke and Tristan exchanged worried glances. "What should we do?" Tristan asked Duke.

"Just keep playing defensively until something works!" Duke had two monsters on the field, both in defense position, with one face down monster. Tristan on the other hand, was wide open, no monsters on the field and only a face down that would do little to deter Nezbitt should he decide to put Tristan out of his misery.

"Like that will save you," Nezbitt mocked. "Now, to finish you off. I, Perfect Machine King will attack you directly!"

"Tristan!" Duke shouted, but could do little to stop the onslaught. Tristan braced himself, shielding his face with his hands as Nezbitt lunged forward with a fist. When the dust and smoke cleared, the click of Tristan's Life Point counter ticked down to zero. The concrete floor fell away like a swinging trap door and Tristan plunged down into the inky depths.

Duke stood there in horror, face blank with stunned silence. He shook his head, to center himself before whirling about and snarling, "You'll pay for that!"

While no facial expressions were visible, Duke could feel the smugness radiate off of Nezbitt, who stood there, arms crossed. "I'd like to see you try. You aren't much better off than your friend there."

"Oh I'll find a way, just you wait and see!"

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Serenity was the first to spot it, a plume of dust and smoke off in the distance, followed shortly by a distinct thud, like something landing on concrete. She pointed, "Something's happening over there! Maybe that's where Tristan and Duke are!" She broke into a run, dashing in between two warehouses.

"I certainly hope so," Yugi said, running after her and the other girls.

Serenity skidded to a halt in front of an airplane hangar. "It came from here!" Serenity tugged on the handles but they refused to budge. "And I can hear Duke inside! There's gotta be a way in somehow."

"Wait, I could be a trap," Mai warned her. "Noa could make it sound like Duke or something. . ."

"But what if it is? He could be trapped or worse!"

"She has a point," Yugi remarked. "We should go check and if it is a trap, we are quite prepared for it." His eyes flickered to her Duel Disk to make a point.

Meanwhile, Tea went around to the side of the hangar, finding a heavy metal door with a metal bar for a knob. "Um guys, I may have found a way inside." she experimentally leaned on the door and it creaked open. "And it's unlocked."

"Be careful Tea," Yugi urged, jogging to the door.

"I'll be fine," Tea assured him, before walking inside.

They found Duke and Nezbitt facing off in a duel, their monsters on the field. "Duke!" Yugi shouted, getting his attention.

"Hey! Its about time you showed up," Duke said, chuckling weakly. "I'm just about to cream this creep."

"A laughable statement," Nezbitt sneered.

"Says the guy who got his ass handed to him in two turns," Mai said scornfully.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Duke interjected. "You dueled him already?"

"Yeah. Serenity and I wiped the floor with him."

Duke turned to Nezbitt. "so you're cheating then! You dirty, rotten bastard! You were already beaten!"

"Your petty claims of deceit will do little to alter this duel," Nezbitt stated. "No matter what, you'll end up just like your friend here shortly."

"Like you friend. . .?" Yugi wondered before it dawned on him. "Tristan lost?"

Duke nodded sadly. "He lost just a turn ago. I couldn't help help him."

Serenity let out a choked sob, clinging to Mai's side. "Not Tristan! That's not fair!"

"We'll get him back," Mai soothed, patting Serenity on the back. "Duke you better not screw this up!"

"Gee, thanks for the encouragement!" Duke Devlin drew his card. "My move! First I activate Card of Sanctity, which allows me to draw until I have six cards and then I activate my Monster Reborn and I bring back Orgoth the Relentless back from my Graveyard and in attack mode! Then I'll place two cards face down and end my turn!" when he had built his deck earlier, Duke caught wind of two cards, Graceful Dice and Skull Dice, so he decided to use them. They were good cards after all, and they fit the dice theme nicely.

"Fall for the bait," Duke prayed feverishly, crossing his fingers. "Fall for it. . ."

"That is your last move?" Nezbitt scoffed. "Pitiful. I attack your Orgoth the Relentless and end this charade of a duel!"

"Activate Skull Dice!"

"No!" Nezbitt snarled.

"And now lets see what the dice have in store for us." The red die rolled across the hangar floor, before landing on a four. "Sucks to be you." Nezbitt's attack points were cut into fourths and now Duke's monster had more than enough to deflect and stop the attack. The fist of Perfect Machine King bounced off the broad blade of Orgoth's sword. Orgoth the Relentless then drove the blade through the chest of Perfect Machine King and by proxy, Nezbitt.

"Your victory was pointless!" Nezbitt laughed manically. "I still have a body and now I can escape this cyber hell!"

"That's not fair!" Serenity cried out.

"You lost!" Duke added but he was only speaking to empty air. Nezbitt had vanished. Duke sagged forward in defeat. "Remind me to never do that again," he huffed a few beats later. "I'm not built for dueling."

Serenity turned to Mai and Yugi. "We'll get Tristan back, right?"

Yugi nodded. "We'll get him back. We'll make sure of it."

An important thing to make note of here. Duke did not choose those cards because of Joey. He has never seen Joey use those cards during Battle City. In fact, Duke never once saw Joey duel, save for the last chunk of Joey's duel against Yugi and Joey did not use those cards at that time. Duke chose the cards because they're dice and they would fit his dueling motif. Nothing more.

There, that's my two cents.