Alternate Seven: Powers Stripped

The teens looked over at the creator child in their presence. "Sooo, kid," Spencer said, folding his arms, "how exactly do you know Susiros and Resheph?"

He looked down at the ground. "Well, I met Susiros a few weeks ago when I was sorting through a trash bin behind a restaurant in search of some food. She actually took me inside and let me have a real meal without a hint of banana peel and apple core. She promised me that if I helped her take down these people-you guys-that had been preventing her and her boyfriend from creating the world of their dreams, she'd give me a better life with food that wasn't half-eaten, new clothes, an actual house, and a heckuva lot more. She sounded like she was sweet and seemed completely sincere…"

Pharaoh shook his head. "That, unfortunately, is one of her greatest ploys for getting others to do her bidding."

Art sighed. "I only started realizing that when I stopped my created heroes from brutally destroying mere humans. And when I stopped them from hurting you that first time, she started turning downright nasty. At that point I knew something had to be done, so…" He reached into his pocket and pulled out another folded up piece of paper. Upon unfolding it, they were faced with the sketch of their superhero selves. "I drew this and sent the powers out to you before I was forced to give some to those two."

"Ey, tanks for not dressin' us up in tights," Joey commented.

Art laughed. "You're quite welcome."

"Thank you very much for sending us these powers, but now I think it would be appropriate if you'd take them away," Pharaoh said. "I think I speak for all of us when I say that while these powers have been helpful, we'd prefer to still be able to use our older ones."

The others nodded in agreement.

Art tore the drawing up into pieces. The superhero outfits and masks vanished and their normal clothing returned. As a test, Joey pounded his fist directly onto the street-and stayed in that position with wide eyes and clenched teeth, too stunned to even scream out in pain.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. "Idiot," he muttered.

Art put his hands into his pockets, looked down at the ground, and murmured, "Well, I guess I should be going now."

He turned to leave when Spencer called out, "Now wait a minute!"

Art turned and looked at Spencer's smiling face. "You let yourself get involved in this because you were promised a better life, right? Susiros wouldn't give you that in millions of years, but I, on the other hand, would be happy to do so."

Art stared at him. "You…are you serious?"

"Of course! I've got plenty of cash to help start you out with some food, new clothes, the first few rent payments of a new apartment…and I could easily get a job for you in the Kingrah Police Department. They'd be absolutely enthralled to have a creator on their force, Mr…uh…"

"Art," he said, his eyes lighting up with delight. "Art Azukari."

"Art. The name suits you, bro," Spencer smiled. He zapped up a custom portal maker and sent a spark down into its opening. A portal appeared which led directly to the streets of Kingrah. "C'mon, why don't you come inside so that the two of us can discuss your future a little bit more."

"Whoa," Art proclaimed as he gazed through the portal at the world beyond his own. He slowly stepped inside and kept looking to his left and right at the beautiful city.

"See you later, guys," Spencer said, waving to them as he also stepped through. The portal slammed shut behind him.

"And thus another adventure comes to an end," Pharaoh commented.

"Wish I could've kept dat superspeed we had," Joey said as the teens started walking down the street and away from the battle sight. "Just imagine how much food we could've gotten away wit eatin'!"

"Wheeler, nobody wants to dare imagine how much you would eat if you had the chance," Kaiba said.

Yugi and Tristan held Joey back from pounding Kaiba as he continued down the street with a smug smile on his face. Once he'd finally calmed down and Kaiba was out of sight, the five let go and started walking down the street again.

"Ey, you guys ever tink dat someday we might not hafta deal wit anyting even remotely involvin' supers, magics, an villains?" Joey asked the others.

"Nope!" they all replied.

"Yep, dat's what I tought," Joey replied.

And with that, the five vanished down the street into the night.