Nightmares Come to Town

LLS

Done mostly as crack.

There are the days which start out good, and then go downhill from there, Doctor Strange reflected.

And then there are the days when nothing seems right the moment you get out of bed. The coffee is burnt, the toast as well, and to top it all off there is a disturbance in the Force right before afternoon tea.

On hindsight, he reflected, he should have noted that perhaps the news that there was a Duel Monsters tournament being held in New York should hint at the existence of more than one shadow mage on the entire globe, and that all of them were gathering in New York.

So, when the Avengers were called in to break up a raid, only in time to see a black-purple dome dissolve and several men and women dressed in black falling to the ground, and in the midst of it all, a white-haired boy was sheepishly smiling at the stunned superheroes, Doctor Strange knew to break out the heavy-duty stuff when he got back.

After chewing out Yuugi Mutou. Politely, of course.

"...and that concludes our report," Captain America summed up for the higher-ups in American military. "Any questions, gentlemen?"

"I got one," the most hard-line of the generals started. "Why are kids here?" he pointed to the white-haired Ryou Bakura approaching nervous breakdown, the blonde Marik Ishtar standing protectively over him, and the tri-coloured haired Yuugi Mutou comforting Ryou, as if making themselves unseen and unheard.

Captain America sighed, incapable of believing that none of them have heard his verbal report. "Because we have reason to believe that they have attracted the notice of...certain dangerous elements who are sending assassins after them."

"Maybe we can get them to the Baxter Building," Iron Man was in a contemplative mood. "We could get Reed and me- I mean, the boss to take a look at the shadows today. While Steve and Wolverine can interrogate the assassins."

"It's just for a while," Yuugi comforted a sobbing Ryou. "Until Bakura get here, okay? You'll love Logan San, he's a nice man...except when you keep him away from coffee..."

"What are the odds of our safety...?" Marik whispered, still in protective mode. "I can deal with normal muggers, but I don't think I can deal with meta-humans too well, Yuugi."

"Nonsense, the Avengers can help us," Yuugi brightly replied, violet eyes focusing on Captain America. "After all, there is that situation with Namor they owe me for."

Those violet eyes, while innocent, still held that deep expression that Steve Rogers found himself shying away from, as if it was measuring his very soul.

"With all due respect," another general started. "Non-American citizens are hardly a part of America's concern..."

"Sir," the Captain interrupted. "I'm risking court-martial by doing this, but I don't think you want to do that. The Avengers do owe them for the last situation with Namor."

"Oh, and what did they do to fish-boy now?" the military man snapped.

"They got a dragon to threaten him," Captain America shrugged. "After which, Yuugi Mutou rendered further aid to the Avengers by getting us entrance into a South American guerilla base and providing an exit through...a different way. Wolverine respects him. Charles Xavier keeps a healthy distance away from him. Even Thor pussyfoots around Yuugi. I really don't think denying protection to someone who makes Thor nervous is a good idea."

There was a very long pause.

"What course of action do you recommend, Captain?"

"I'd recommend placing the three under the care of the … Fantastic Four. I heard Susan Richards-Storm is in a maternal phase again."

"Hi, Suze, what's up... eek!"

"Wow," the Thing remarked as he watched Johnny Storm a.k.a the Human Torch fly up to the candelabra and hang there as a pair of red heels walked themselves over. "You have got to teach me that trick."

"Enough playing around," Susan Storm chided as she passed by with a tray, shooing the heels off with one hand while balancing the tray in the other. The heels clicked angrily and disappeared in a puff of purple mist. "Come, the kids must be hungry already."

"Doubt it," Johnny muttered as they moved to the most dangerous room in the entire building, a.k.a Reed Richards' laboratory. "I bet they're just sitting down, playing their card games -woah!"

Johnny Storm narrowly missed being impaled on the end of an axe held by a rather large Minotaur wearing battle armour. The axe dug into the door frame, the Minotaur giving a bellow that, at close proximity sent all his hairs tingling as it yanked its axe out and turned around.

"I told you!" they could hear Yuugi's shouts. "Battle Ox in an enclosed area is not a good idea! Especially with Shadow Magic!"

"He wanted it!" they heard the Egyptian yell back. "And I can't use Malik's cards, they're full of torture devices, and Yami told us to keep the monster violence to a minimum while they looked for housing in the Shadow Realm, remember?"

"Why did they need housing there in the first place is a mystery," Yuugi sighed, shaking his head as he came into view. "Oh, Mr Storm, nice to see you again. "Ryou is over there with Mr Richards with Franklin trying to restrain him. Good luck."

"Housing?" Johnny muttered as he shied away from the Minotaur. "Er, Ben, help..."

The Minotaur soon dissolved into purple mist once more.

"...never mind."

"We have, through trial, error, deduction and the occasional field test, seen their capabilities for ourselves," Reed Richards started nervously as he looked at all the Avengers present. The three guests were out with Steve and Johnny as more-or-less unwilling chaperones.

"Get on with it," Tony Stark impatiently started.

"Now, we all know you're eager to one-up Seto Kaiba, but don't be impatient," Reed admonished, calling up a hologram recording of the previous week's Battle Ox rampage. "This is a real monster from a card game that they summoned here sometime in the last week. The door frame still has the axe mark."

He switched holograms, such that the next one showed Ryou and Yuugi in a duel. As the monsters clashed overhead, Reed continued: "So, from this, we can surmise that any powers they have comes from playing a card in the game, then expressing the card into reality, such that the card effect happens in real life. Theoretically, we can hypothesise that they are capable of doing magic without the cards, or with different games, such as poker cards, chess pieces, etcetera."

Tony shook his head. "Now I get why Kaiba likes that Blue-Eyes so much."

"Actually, Mr Mutou mentioned that if Mr Kaiba got angry enough, he could theoretically summon an actual Blue-Eyes White Dragon," Reed answered. "I looked up the game," he continued in reply to Tony's look.

"And where are the three?" Tony asked, clapping his hands. "Come on, I wanna meet the guy who puts the cold fish in his place."

Just then, said three rushed in, Captain America in tow, mumbling something about Deadpool. Said assassin crashed in a second later, heading straight for Ryou.

No one expected Ryou to pull out a card from his pocket. "Dimensional Fissure!"

A wide purple portal opened and swallowed the mercenary whole before closing up.

Ryou blinked before swallowing. "Oops."

"Why?" Malik groaned, picking himself off the floor.

"I just sent the man into a horde of Fiends," Ryou conversationally replied, dusting himself as he stood.

"You're worried about a man who just tried to kill us being eaten by Bakura's fiends?" Yuugi stated in disbelief. "Well, good point, no one deserves that."

"Actually, I was more worried about him running into Malik's fiends," Ryou pointed out.

"That's...worrying, come to think of it." Yuugi pulled out another card. "Return from the Different Dimension!"

Said purple portal appeared again, spitting out one mercenary looking the worse for wear.

"So," Yuugi turned to a thunderstruck Stark. "What do we do now?"

"So, against all reason, you chose to set up house in the Mausoleum of the Emperor," Marik sighed, banging his head on the heavy-duty steel table, much to the surprise of the Fantastic Four. His crazy other half grinned happily, waiting for his approval. "Do I want to know why?"

"Nnnnooo..." he sang. "But Malik thought hikari-pretty would like it!"

"Malik, I love you, but..." Marik grimaced. "A tomb?"

"It's in the heart of Necrovalley!" Malik waved his hands around to make his point. "And it borders Zombie World! A lot!"

"A tomb?"

"Actually, more of a palace, come to think of it," Yuugi piped up. "Yami secured the Sanctuary in the Sky and the Fountain in the Sky, since it borders the Castle and the Magical Citadel of Endymion and the Secret Village of the Spellcasters."

"It is also separated from Dark Sanctuary and the Castle of Dark Illusions only by Black Garden and Mystic Plasma Zone, aibou." Yami pointed out, holding his almost-lookalike close. Steve found the resemblance unnerving and wondered when Ryou's almost-twin would show up.

"Where is Bakura anyway?" Marik managed to state as he fought off the psychopath mauling him, earning him many a look from the Avengers present.

"He said something about hunting assassins down," Yami replied non-committally, as his partner let go. He got up, smirking in a way that set the Captain's teeth on edge. "If you excuse me, I have a thief to assist." He vanished in a burst of purple smoke.

"Aww, no fair! Pharaoh gets to go maul assassins, why can't I?" Malik whined.

"What assassins?" Steve asked in trepidation.

"Why, the nasty people who tried to kill hikari-pretty, the chibi Pharaoh and Ryou-yo!" Malik sang. "They borrowed Drillago, after all, right?"

"Reed?" Steve turned to the scientist, who was attempting to construct a map of the 'Shadow Realm' using the description given from the Duel Monster cards.

"Drillago...looks like this," Reed called up a hologram. The two heroes stared at it for a long moment before moving. "Malik, where did you say Bakura was?"

He didn't get to answer before another portal of dark mist appeared and a white-haired man walked out, dragging behind what looked to be several assassins tied up, gagged and then dragged through several nasty areas of indeterminate geography. The white-haired man moved and before either hero could react, enveloped Ryou in a bone-crushing embrace.

"I've got the Castle of Dark Illusions!" the second white-haired crowed, sending shivers on Steve's forearms as Ryou was swept into a bridal-style hold and Bakura, without a second glance, disappeared with Ryou in more purple mist.

"Er...that was Bakura," the taller version of Yuugi stated.

"Wow, he must be pretty desperate," Marik commented, whistling after. "Poor sap... I bet Ryou'll be completely unable to walk by tomorrow."

"Really?" Malik asked innocently. "Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have let Bakura borrow Handcuffs Dragon..."

"Scratch that," Yami, who had appeared, said. "Ryou'll not be moving anywhere."

"This place is a navigational nightmare," Reed, holding up a map pieced together with Duel Monster Field Spell cards, sighed. "Canyons leading through mountains to fields to wastelands to cities and forests all of a sudden...it completely defies geographical expectations."

"And we can access it from anywhere in the world," Yuugi added. "From either end."

The Avengers assembled thought for a moment. How monsters could just appear from behind battle lines. How supplies could be transported across the world in a blink of an eye. How easily enemy fortresses could be breached, how quickly it would take for an army to mobilise, with that sort of power.

It was a power that won wars.

Needless to say, most Avengers went out of their way to ensure that no villain tried anything for a long time.