善良妈妈的朋友

Chapter 57

After Duelist Kingdom he\'d begun to seek out that emotion, that sensation. His psychiatrist had said that it was good that Maximillion was doing that, as it allowed him to gain back hold of the empathy he\'d lost after Cecelia\'s death. To remember that people were people; they weren\'t trading cards that could be sent out to do his bidding or cast into the graveyard and then shuffled back into a deck when not needed. They existed. They had their own pains and sorrows and traumas. He had forgotten that in his grief and it had cost him dearly and nearly cost him everything. He had lost good friends who had been horrified by his actions and left rather than see the monster he\'d become. His adopted sons... he hadn\'t talked to them in far too long and he still was working up the nerve to do so. His employees feared him where once they had seen him as a father and a friend.

He swore to honor his wife\'s memory but never forget again, so that when they were finally reunited he would be able to meet her gaze and not hang his head in shame. Because he understood now... what Shadi had been trying to show him wasn\'t that he could bring her back but rather that life was a precious gift and at the end, if you used it right, you would gain an eternity with those you loved. He would see her again... but only if he did things right.

But that wasn\'t what was odd about him liking to watch people... no, it was the fact that most would think it so utterly against his nature. He knew his reputation, needing to be the center of attention even when he was sitting quietly not doing a thing. After all, he had done all he could to cultivate that reputation. Some liked to hunt by stalking in the bushes, keeping out of sight; Maximillion had learned how to do it by being in the middle of the room with every eye on him. It was like a chameleon, really... taking on outrageous colors but in turn using them to hide from prying eyes.

It was this natural talent that allowed him to see that Edwin Chaos was barely keeping hold of his frustrations... and Bruno wasn\'t happy in the slightest that Edwin wasn\'t reacting with dread or horror to his reveal.

\'Bruno... that is a bit of bad business that came back to haunt me.\'

There was something wrong about the duelist. He was overly violent, prone to holding grudges, utterly lacked any sense of attachment to humanity, and a laundry list of other issues that made Maximillion shake his head and wonder how he could have ever thought he deserved to be on his island, let alone in the tournament as an Eliminator. People like the Paradox Brothers... they were tough and they had no problem with mind games but it was all business. The moment things were done and they were able to walk away from their assignment they become regular men, no different than anyone else. In the days before the tournament, as he\'d met with the Eliminators, he\'d seen them being very casual with the likes of Renard and Brom Bones. It was only when he\'d given the command for them to go out and begin eliminating duelists that they\'d donned their costumes and begun their riddle-master bit. Afterwards he knew they went home, put on t-shirts and jeans like everyone else (well, not like Maximillion but most people) and relaxed.

But Bruno?

Bruno never stopped.

"Do you know why I recruited you?" he found himself saying.

Bruno snapped his gaze towards Maximillion and he saw only arrogance mixed with the wrong kind of madness. That was something people didn\'t realize, that sometimes the greats NEEDED madness. Madness allowed one to ignore all those that said it was sane to stay with the tried and true, the known. Madness allowed one to dream impossible dreams. Madness was needed... but like with all things it needed to be in the correct among.

The short little duelist before him had overdosed on madness.

"Despite the fact that the chemotherapy you needed when you were a child made your pituitary gland dormant you refused to let that get you down. You were determined to make the best you could out of your life and never let your condition get you down. You lashed out at anyone who said you were disabled or even \'handicapable\' because you saw yourself as no different than anyone else."

"Wrong," Bruno said with a smirk. "I know I\'m different... I\'m better than all of you."

"That\'s why you lost to me," Edwin said with a lazy roll of his head, almost singing the words. Bruno glared at him for that but Eddy-Boy merely gave an innocent shrug.

Maximillion spoke, bringing Bruno\'s attention back on him. "But more than that... I respected your drive. You refused to let things go... and back then I was in desperate need for people like that." He shut his eye and let out a sigh. "Even before Yugi-Boy defeated Seto Kaiba I knew that the Eliminators I employed would need to be determined and have a strong will. After all, if they truly were better than Kaiba-Boy they\'d have already defeated him." He nodded at that, though mostly to himself more than anything. "I never expected you to beat Kaiba... and I never expected you to defeat Yugi. But I did need you to wear them down."

"And I would have if you hadn\'t allowed Chaos here to interfere with my plans!"

But Maximillion merely sighed, finally opening his eye so he could look right at Bruno, his hired help standing awkwardly behind him, not quite knowing what he should do. "But that\'s the important matter, Bruno... I\'m glad I interfered. I\'m glad I stopped you from forcing Edwin into a death trap and I\'m even more glad he defeated you. Because I see now I was wrong... that the stubborn refusal to give up that I thought you had... that was never what you really possessed. You were obsessed and were willing to go to any length to win."

"And why shouldn\'t I?" Bruno demanded. "Do you purposely hobble yourself by discarding your hand? You use everything you have! If your opponent is stupid enough to not understand the game or march into a mine field... well, that\'s on them."

He looked at the small man and sighed. "You could be so much more if you just let go of your failures and embraced your better aspects."

"That\'s something the weak say in order to justice the positions they\'ve found themselves in!" Bruno declared. "Look at me!" He threw his arms out wide. "I managed to trap the great Maximillion Pegasus and the fool Edwin Chaos!"

"And what else do you have?" he pressed. He knew it was most likely hopeless but he couldn\'t help it... he wanted so badly to make up for the mistakes he\'d made and if he could just get Bruno to see reason... "When is the last time you saw your family?"

He knew the answer, of course: not for a long time. The short man before him had swore off his family years ago... mostly because they had sided with the plaintiff that had sued Bruno for aggressive actions right before a card tournament (not Duel Monsters... if it had been Duel Monsters he\'d have never made Bruno an Eliminator as even during his greatest moments of madness Maximillion had still held that much respect for the game.

"Friends?" he pressed. "A girlfriend or a boyfriend? Co-workers?" He shook his head sadly. "You drive a lot of people away Bruno, constantly seeing them as either enemies you must defeat or pawns to sacrifice in your games. That isn\'t a healthy way to live... you have to see that."

"What I see," Bruno said, upper lip twitching as if he were channeling all his rage into that single inch of his body, "is a coward who gave up mere moments before he had victory in his hands and now wants to justify his failures. But... I\'m not going to do that!" He pointed at Edwin. "We are going to duel! And I will defeat you! And Pegasus!" Maximillion raised an eyebrow at that; their kidnapper wanted a duel... with him? That was intriguing, to be sure. "And when I defeat you both I will be known as the new King of Games!"

"Except I\'m not the King of Games you idiot," Edwin snarked. "Yugi Muto is. And even if I was... you get it was a meaningless title Pegasus created to hype up his tournament."

"I don\'t know about meaningless..." Pegasus said, mildly offended by the comment.

"Shhh, it was," Edwin said, waving his hand in Pegasus\' direction. "It was meaningless but I don\'t hold that against you because you managed to trick Seto Kaiba into thinking it mattered and fucking with that brain is a delight!" He chuckled before slowly sliding his eyes back in Bruno\'s direction. "But you have nothing to get from me, bucko."

"I will defeat you," Bruno declared, taking a step forward.

"Listen Kit," Edwin began only to pause. "Wait... Alto was Baloo, Renard looked like Don Carnage... Bruno is Kit... holy hell were all my opponents in Duelist Kingdom Tale Spin rip-offs?"

"...what?" Bruno said.

"Shut up," Edwin said, beginning to pace. "Just... shut up for a moment!" He ran his fingers through his hair. "Fuck. They were all from Tale Spin. How did I not see that? Well, Renard as Don Carnage I saw... that accent was a dead giveaway. But Baloo and Kit... huh." He began to press his tongue against his upper lip, making it bulge out. "That is... really odd. Like really odd."

"Edwin," Maxamillion said softly, concerned that the man might be suffering from a mental breakdown.

"Give me a moment here!" Edwin snapped, walking away from the group and pressing his head against a wall. Maximillion didn\'t hear ALL he said but he did pick up Edwin grumping, "Did the writers of GX take over for a few fucking hours?" before he finally let out an aggravated growl, head and upper body trembling, and then turned back to focus on them. "Right... anyway... I\'m going leave now before Rebecca and Molly show up... probably Molly will be Danger Woman or something. I guess Fakey the Clown, when he looked like Kaiba, was a bit like Shere Khan... nevermind, Pegasus, wanna come with? I\'m pretty sure I can drop you off at your castle before I return here. Did I mention I have a Millennium Item and can teleport now?"

"...no," he said, startled by that... rather blasé comment.

"Well I do. Everyone has a Millennium Item nowadays. Me, Yugi, Bakura has two but you know that, Shadi... oh, he\'s dead by the way!"

"What?"

"Yeah, dead. Not sure if he was dead before or after he met you but yeah... dead. Oh, Marik, who Bruno isn\'t working for apparently-" He blinked. "You aren\'t working for Marik, are ya?"

"I work for just myself," Bruno snapped. "And I certainly wouldn\'t work for some-"

"Gonna cut you off before you finish and say something racist. I mean Marik is a crime boss but he\'s still a minority and we want to insult his personality and actions and stupid hair style choices; not his race, gender, sexual orientation, or physical traits. If he worships a different god from the rest of us or is into feeding women cake who am I to judge! Its why I am not commenting on your height... that would be insanely rude."

"That is oddly polite of you," the tall Hispanic man (Columbian, if Maximillion wasn\'t mistaken) said from behind Bruno.

"I\'m trying to be a better person," Edwin said with a shrug. "I\'m an ass... but trying to be a more polite ass." He gave a shrug before shooting Bruno a look. "You can try it yourself, Cloudkicker. Let us all go and we don\'t say boo. I\'ll even put it in writing. Hell, we can draw up a contract where I will pay you a one time ransom fee if you agree never to pull this shit again... of course if you do-"

Maximillion stiffened. It had been months since he\'d felt the power of a Millennium Item... and now it was radiating off of Edwin like a supernova. Around them a song began to play, orchestral and dramatic and powerful.

"-we\'ll have words. And words... win wars."

"Am I... supposed to be frightened by this?" Bruno asked. "You play some music, pause dramatically, go from acting like a fool to behaving like some grim avengers... and that is supposed to matter to me?"

"Well when you put it like that it does sound less than impressive." He shrugged. "Still, I\'m leaving."

"You leave when I say you can leave," Bruno declared, moving to stand in front of Edwin, keeping him from walking away.

"Yeah, no," Edwin responded with a scoff. "Here\'s the thing... there is literally no reason for me to duel you. I have six locator cards so I don\'t need to face you. I\'m not interested in winning some title from you or defending a moniker I have. And despite all you might think... you and I? We have nothing. You aren\'t my rival or my nemesis or anything like that. You might have thought endlessly about me since I defeated you but me? I moved on. For you... the day Edwin Bison invaded your village was the most important day of your life. For... it was Tuesday." He shrugged. "I didn\'t think about you, Bruno. I didn\'t worry about your vengeance or anything like that."

"You should have," Bruno declared.

"No, I shouldn\'t!" Edwin complained. "If I have an archnemesis it\'s the evil doppelganger of me from another dimension." He turned to Maximillion. "Alternate dimensions exist by the way... please don\'t try and grab a Cecellia from one of those, she wouldn\'t be your wife. At best you piss off another Pegasus and we get Into the Spiderverse. At worse she\'ll be evil and kill you and then I\'ll have to try and clean up that mess. Her being evil... not your dead body. I assume there are people who handle that."

"Okay," he said, honestly trying to keep up.

"But let\'s ignore all that," Edwin stated, shaking his head. "You want a list of what I\'ve dealt with just today? Let\'s go through it item by item, from least annoying to most. There was the crazy magician woman that called me a fraud even though I never met her or her coma boyfriend. There is the Egyptian crime lord that can take control of people\'s minds. There is the fact that Mai Valentine has a goddess living in her head who puts \'creepy clingy stalker girl\' tropes to shame, and Weevil. Yes, Weevil was worse than even my girlfriend being a goddess who I am pretty sure wants to fuck me in the middle of the street and force people to watch and then applaud when she orgasms."

~MC~MC~MC~

Selene suddenly took control of Mai, sensing that her Endymion had come up with a VERY good idea!

~MC~MC~MC~

"So you\'ll pardon me if I am not interested in having a duel with you, Bruno. So I\'m going to leave and in about 3 minutes come back with the CCN Security Team with orders to shot to kill. Because while I\'m trying to be a better person I am fucking done with this bullshit."

"And you assume I\'ll let you leave?" Bruno demanded.

"Okay then," Edwin said, rolling his neck. "Then I will beat you up. Pegasus, welcome to join in."

"I just watch," Maxamillion said. "I have men who beat up people for me."

"How is Sally? Did he get my care package I sent him at the prison?"

Bruno glowered at Edwin. "I grow tired of you mocking me! You will-"

"Yo! Hired help guy!" Edwin said to the Columbian. "Grab him while I punch the dork. I\'ll make it worth your wild! Triple what he\'s paying you!"

But the man sighed. "I can\'t. My sobrita-"

"Fuck!" Edwin cursed. "I forgot about her! God damn it all!" He let out an annoyed huff. "And let me guess, if we don\'t duel you then you\'ll... blow her up or something like that before I come back."

"Or... something," Bruno said casually.

"Damn it all," Edwin growled before activating his duel disc. "Fine then, you and me-"

"And me," Maxamillion said, stepping forward. "Bruno here kidnapped my fabulous person and I simply can\'t let that stand. I do have to defend my honor."

"Perfect," Bruno said, walking out of the room that had served as Maxamillion\'s cell and returning with a trio of duel discs. "I so do love being able to defeat two of my enemies at once! It saves so much time! Bruno and I-"

"Wait," Edwin said, cutting him off, "your goon is named Bruno too?"

"I\'m not really a goon," the Columbian man said weakly.

"Yes, he is! On both counts," the deranged short man stated.

Edwin and Maximillion shared a look. "Uh... either of you have a nickname or something we can use to make this less confusing?"

"Not really," Columbian Bruno said. "My mama calls me Brunito."

"...Good Bruno and Bad Bruno it is then," Edwin stated.

"Excuse me!" The Bruno declared from Duelist Kingdom yelled. "You don\'t-"

"Quiet, Bad Bruno!" Edwin smirked. "See, that works so well."

Bad Bruno glowered before his lips twisted into a smirk. "Make your little comments and your sniping jokes. But now that we have made our tag team duel official I should inform you of the house rules: Here we have a special ban list... and the top two cards are Endymion and Diabolos." Bruno began to giggled madly at that.

Edwin merely poked at the inside of his cheek. "Okay then," he muttered, reaching inside his jacket. "Then I guess-"

"Edwin, a word," Maxamillion said, motioning for him to join him a bit away from the two Brunos. "I imagine you were about to pull out the Kaiju deck?"

"Ah... know about that?" he said, grimacing.

"Indeed," he said with a chuckle. "I made sure to go over the records of who got what decks when everything was sent out... and I don\'t remember my system assigning Kaiju to you. How... interesting that it made that mistake." And by that he meant that thanks to Edwin\'s comment about teleporting it was now painfully clear that Eddy-Boy was the reason why all those decks had been released. Not that he was going to say that out loud... oh no, sometimes it was much more fun to leave someone dangling in the breeze, waiting to see if the next gust would send them fluttering to the ground below. "But I would suggest you not use that deck."

"I don\'t have another deck on me though that will work."

"Luckily... I do," Maximillion said, reaching into his pocket. "I came to Battle City because I wanted to find you. Unfortunately Bruno, the short one, found me first and placed me in that cell. But I have something for you all the same."

And with that he drew out a deck.

"These forty cards were created with you in mind, Edwin. The first new deck I created once I was released by the police and saw the error of my ways. A thank you for helping me see the light... I have something for Yugi-Boy as well, don\'t worry. But for you I had this made."

Edwin took the deck and began to look it over, eyebrows slowly climbing up into his hairline. "This... this is..."

"You claim you are the Guardian Devil... but the thing you must remember is that demons are merely fallen angels. And what has fallen... can also rise. You appeared on my island like a shooting star, changing everything... and for that I am grateful. So duel with this deck, Edwin... and remember that for all your talk of Devils and Demons and Dark Magic... you are a good man. With a good heart."

Edwin swallowed.

"T-thank you," he whispered.

"Any time now!" Bad Bruno complained.

"...let\'s kick his ass."

"Gladly," Maximillion said, activating his own duel disc. "Oh Kaiba-Boy... this is a lovely device. Now then... let us duel!"

~MC~MC~MC~

"I can\'t believe it!" Rex whispered to himself as he looked at the six locator cards in his hand, his opponent walking away and the crowd that had been watching slowly dispersing. "I did it... I actually did it! I\'m going to the Battle City Finals!"

He had been ready to give up after Yugi had defeated him. Pack it up and call it quits. Thought he was done. But Edwin had called him out, told him to not surrender that easily and to keep trying. And... it had all worked out. Rex had managed to find a bunch of duelists that while giving him some hard matches had still ended up falling to him. His deck now had several new spells, he had some monster cards that he could trade or sell to get new cards for his Dino Deck, and he was going to the Battle City Finals!

"That was pretty impressive," a dark haired teen said, walking up to him. He looked oddly familiar but Rex couldn\'t quite place him.

Rex opened his mouth to gloat only to snap it shut. He thought about how Yugi handled things, how Edwin handled things, even how MAI had handled their duel at Duelist Kingdom... and none of them had been rude or arrogant about their victories. They had won but hadn\'t acted like that made them the utter best. Mai especially had been surprising but she had been rather gracious after defeating him, offering to walk him to the docks because \'the goons Pegasus has out here can be real jerks\' and when he\'d turned her down she\'d told him to get better so that next time they met they could have an even better duel.

\'Weevil is the one who is a snob and a pest,\' Rex thought to himself, remembering how the Insect Duelist had mocked him even as they were shaking hands (required before and after every duel in that tournament). \'Kaiba too.\' Rex had watched some of Kaiba\'s duels and the jerk either ignoring his opponents or acted like they didn\'t matter. \'But Yugi... he\'s the King of Games and every time he duels he treats his opponents with respect. Don\'t know if I can do that... but Edwin is only an ass DURING his duels and is a decent guy when the game is done. And they would never be rude to a stranger who complimented them.\'

As such Rex held out his hand and gave the stranger\'s a shake, pocketing his locator cards. "Thanks! It was a hard one but worth it!"

"Oh yeah," the guy said, reaching up and adjusting his red vest. "Any idea what you are going to do with that Cloudian card?"

"No idea," Rex admitted. "Doesn\'t really fit in my deck."

"I\'m sure we could work out a deal..." the teen blinked. "Wow, that sounded really sexual saying it like that. Sorry! Let me start off. I own a card shop... or my dad does but I run it for him. And I\'d be willing to let you look over some of the new Dino cards I got in last week and we can work out a trade for that card."

"Really?" Rex said, surprised.

"Yeah! I\'m working on getting cards from other participants in Battle City... I figure if I market them as having been won by finalists then I can make more money off them."

"Heh, sounds like something my friend-" and yeah, as weird as it was to say considering he\'d always seen himself as a loner, he was his friend, "-Edwin would say."

"...you know Edwin?" the other teen said before letting out his laugh. "His party!"

Instantly Rex remembered that yes, that was where he\'d see the other teen before. "Heh, small world!"

"That it is! Duke Devlin."

"Rex Raptor, though I guessing you know that after the duel!"

"Yeah!" Duke said. "Come on, let\'s get you set up with some new cards!"

"Why not?" Rex said with a shrug, following after Duke.

~MC~MC~MC~

Normally it was a bad idea to play a deck you\'d never used before.

Something my brain and its need to constantly come up with plans and back up plans and back ups for the back ups would have been horrified by.

\'But you really don\'t have a choice in this, do you?\' I thought to myself as I shuffled the deck, having only been given a few minutes to look over the cards and figure out the general strategy the deck was based around before Bruno finally had demanded we get started. Pegasus had also given me a small write up that Cassie had done which I took time to read as Pegasus, bless his hamminess, managed to stall for a minute or so more by claiming he needed to adjust the straps on his duel disc.

The Starry Knight deck. Originally called Holy Knight by Cassie but the censors at Industrial Illusions had vetoed that for religious reasons (she had gone on for three whole paragraphs about them doing that... nice to know I wasn\'t the only person that had problems with the censors). Based around Christmas and the Star of Bethlehem and the angels that had heralded the birth of Christ... only in this case they heralded a giant white dragon. And not Seto\'s dragon which was good because I was pretty sure if Pegasus had given me a Blue-Eyes deck Seto would have fucking killed me.

I had to admit the deck did appeal to me and I couldn\'t help but be amused by the fact that it did seem like a light counterpart to my Lair deck. Oh, it didn\'t use the same strategies or even counter versions of the same strategy but the idea of Fiends and Fairies both worshiping a different dragon? Now that was interesting.

"Are you ready to meet your doom, Edwin?" Bad Bruno demanded, pointing a finger at me. "Soon you will be defeated, cast into that cage again to rot for eternity while I am the new King of Games. Same with you, Pegasus... I will lock you away and become the controller of Industrial Illusions!"

"I don\'t remember us agreeing to those stipulations," Pegasus pointed out.

"At this point I think Bad Bruno is just making it up as he goes along and hoping something sticks."

"SILENCE!" he demanded.

I sighed and drew my first cards. \'Alright, so this deck is built all around summoning and screwing with my opponent\'s field. So this first turn really won\'t do much for me so I need to just begin laying the groundwork for what is to come next.\' I frowned as I looked about the room. \'But the thing is that this isn\'t a normal duel. It\'s a tag team... just like with Cabal. Meaning that I not only have to worry about myself but Pegasus too. I have no idea what his dueling level is going to be like now that the Eye is gone. How much of his skill was thanks to that and how much of it was natural? And then there is Good Bruno... is he going to put his heart into this duel? Bad Bruno hasn\'t threatened his niece yet so at least there is nothing on the line if he loses. But he might still duel hard because in this world no one ever half-asses anything. Damn it all, I hate it when I don\'t have the full story!\' I shook my head and selected a card. \'I need to play it safe for now until I get my answers.\'

"Are you going to make a movie?" Bad Bruno asked.

"Right now, actually. I set this monster in facedown defense position and end my turn."

Good Bruno nodded, looking over his hand. "Uh... well... okay, ya, I guess I\'ll do this. Fire King Avatar Arvata in attack mode." The pink bipedal elephant appeared, holding its flaming sword and ax in hand, the purplish blue flames flickering across it. "And I end my turn."

\'Crap,\' I thought to myself. \'Fire Kings. Designed to activate their effects when they \'burn\' or in other words are destroyed by card effects. Great at field control too. That\'s going to be real nasty.\' I had played Fire Kings myself and knew that in the right hands some nasty combo loops could be formed that could make someone find themselves in a rough way.

"Hmmm," Pegasus said, looking over his hand. "Let us see... I do believe we will start with this monster in facedown defense position." He closed his eyes and gave a wave in Bad Bruno\'s direction. "Your turn, I do believe."

"You\'re right and now you are going to see the destruction I can bring to you!" He held up a card. "I start by summoning my Swap Frog in attack mode!" The orange and red frog with devil horns appeared on the field and thanks to the projectors it looked like it was the size of a normal frog. I was half tempted to just step on it to see what Bad Bruno would say. "When this card is summoned to the field I can send one of my frogs from my deck to my graveyard!" He pulled out his deck and began to go through it. "Now then, let\'s see... ah, this will do nicely." He sent the card to the graveyard. "Next I will use my Swap Frog\'s second effect, which allows me to return him back to my hand and summon a new frog. So come back my Swap Frog so I can unleash my Submarine Frog!"

As the diving suit frog appeared on the field I turned to Pegasus. "I have to ask... who designed these?"

~A Year Earlier~

"Sir?" Cassie said, walking into Pegasus\' office with some sketches he\'d emailed over. "About these frogs you sent over last night... at 2 am... ugh." She crinkled her nose as she looked around his office before finally settling her gaze on the head of Industrial Illusions who was rubbing his head, a glass of something thick and dark green on his desk. "I\'m Irish so I\'m used to hang over cures but that smells like death."

"I feel like death," Pegasus groaned. "Make a note... I will never drink and watch Downton Abbey again."

"Uh... okay," Cassie said, pretending to write that down as she hadn\'t actually brought anything to write with.

"What... what was that about Frogs?"

"The deck you sent to all of us? With a red flag on it for us to rush it into production."

"...I blame Matthew\'s death on this!" he whined only to rub his head.

~MC~MC~MC~

"No idea but I assure you I will get to the bottom of it!"

"Just as you will be seeing the bottom of your lifepoints!" Bad Bruno declared.

I wiggled my hand in front of me. "Eh? I give it 4 out of 10 in turns of insults."

"Die already then!" Bad Bruno snarled. "Submarine Frog, attack Edwin\'s facedown card! And with his effect I automatically do damage to your lifepoints even if you have him in defense! Your pathetic barrier-"

The Submarine Frog went flying backwards, letting out a croaking cry of pain.

"-works well if its higher than your froggie\'s attack," I stated as Starry Knight Orbitael appeared. My angel was masked and holding a shield, stars gleaming and twinkling around it like it was a Shiny Pokemon as it easily repelled Bruno\'s attack right back at him. (Bad Bruno-3100)

"Nicely done, Eddy-Boy!" Pegasus proclaimed even as Bad Bruno, with a glower, set a card facedown on the field.

"Thanks... and now it\'s my turn!" I drew my next card and looked over my hand. "I start by summoning Starry Knight Rayel to the field!" Another masked angel, this one with a one-handed sword, appeared, brining not just stars but the lights of the aura borealis. "And when it is summoned to the field I get to add one Starry Knight Spell or Trap Card from my deck to my hand." The deck popped out and I used that moment to carefully look over the deck again, reminding me of what cards I had. \'Hmmm... yeah, this one will do real rather nicely, considering what I have in my hand.\' Selecting the card and held it up. "And why leave this in my hand when I can just play it right here, right now? I activate Starry Knight Sky!"

Suddenly the room was gone and we were on a plane of white light and above us was the most beautiful and quiet night\'s sky any of us had ever seen flared into radiance. All the stars of the heavens shone down on us, twinkling happily and promising that miracles and dreams were about to come true thanks to their power. It reminded me of cold dark December nights, when the world was utterly quiet so that you couldn\'t hear a thing except your own breath and all there was around you was the sky.

After a moment where I mentally made a note to tell Kaiba he needed to give some software engineers a fucking raise I said, "This card allows me to make a second normal summons so long as that summons is one of two kinds of monsters: a Starry Knight... or this." I held up a card and at once Pegasus was beaming like it was Christmas morning... which was a rather apt metaphor considering the deck he\'d given me. "I tribute my Starry Knight Orbitael and Rayel in order to summon forth Starry Night, Starry Dragon!"

Bad Bruno huffed. "What kind of pathetic name-"

The stars burst brightly above us, cutting off whatever the pest was going to say, and from the heavens came the grand angelic dragon herself. Her scales were pure white like fallen snow and her eyes green like Christmas trees. Her body was more anthropomorphic than most other dragons so that she looked more like a giant knight in dragon armor than a beast. This was no Blue-Eyes or Red-Eyes; Starry Dragon was a warrior for peace and justice and as she spread her wings and trilled out a cry like silver bells I couldn\'t help but grin.

"You were saying?" I asked. "Now then, I activate Starry Night, Starry Dragon\'s first effect, which allows me, upon being summoned from my hand, to destroy one card on the field. And I choose your Submarine Frog!"

The Starry Night, Starry Dragon spread out her wings and the stars began to flash rapidly around her, charging her with holy energy. The scuba frog gulped, looking up at my monster, but there was no where to run or hide-

"I activate my Fire King\'s special effect," Good Bruno declared, his eyes half closed and hooded. "I can destroy one monster in my hand in exchange for sparing the Submarine Frog."

"Thank you so much," Bad Bruno said. "It is so nice when people know their place."

"I\'m not doing it for you," Good Bruno said. "Mira would never forgive me if I didn\'t give this my all but that doesn\'t mean I respect you."

\'God damn it he is one of those morons who believes in honor before reason. Fucking hell, just for ONCE I\'d like to mean someone who was a good guy but also understand that honor has a limit.\' I frowned as Good Bruno placed a card in the graveyard. \'And because this is a Fire King Deck that means that destroying a card can actually help him out a ton, since they are all about burning fast and using the ashes to start new fires. Great.\' I shook my head and said out loud. "Then I guess I will just have to do this the old fashion way. Starry Night, Starry Dragon, attack Bad Bruno!"

My dragon flared its wings once more only this time it launched itself forward, massive talons raised as it prepared to swipe at the Submarine Frog.

"Oh, and did I forget this bit?" I said with a smirk. "When she attacks I can banish a monster from your side of the field till the end of the turn!"

"What?!" Bad Bruno declared in shock as a portal of starlight appeared below the frog, sucking it up and leaving him defenseless He cried out as he was hit by the strike, which sent him flying into a wall. "You... will pay for that." He ran his forearm over his mouth. (Bad Bruno-400)

"Yeah, about that... second battle effect activate. Second attack."

"Second-SHIT!" Bad Bruno\'s eyes went wide as my Starry Night, Starry Dragon moved to finish the little pecker off.

"Fire King, intercept," Good Bruno commanded though without any real passion. His elephant man nodded and launched himself in the way of Starry Night, Starry Dragon, destroying himself but keeping Bad Bruno in the game. (Good Bruno-3100)

\'It also means that Good Bruno has now set up two destroyed monsters, one by effect so that effect will trigger no matter what and the other by battle so I have a... 25% chance of an effect trigger. Need to set some stuff up for that.\' I selected a card from my hand and set it on the field before ending my turn.

"Now then," Good Bruno said before yawning. "Sorry. Anyway, now that I\'ve drawn a card... my Fire King High Avatar Garunix that was destroyed from my hand last turn is summoned from the graveyard to the field."

"Aaaaaaugh this is gonna suck," I groaned as the large phoenix burst back from the graveyard in a plume of fire and lava, screeching even as the ground below us began to crack and buckle from the volcano it had created in order to escape.

"When the Fire King High Avatar Garunix is summoned he unleashes a hellfire surge that destroys every other monster on the field."

The volcano exploded, magma gushing out of it. The molten rock rushed like water, destroying every monster on the field, starting with Good Bruno\'s side of our makeshift arena.

"You dolt!" Bad Bruno screamed. "You just cost me my Submarine Frog!"

"Needed to eliminate his Starry Night, Starry Dragon. And now his field will be wide open for an attack."

Bruno blinked at that before cackling. "Yes... yes, that is perfect! I am so glad our cunning strategy is coming together!"

"I must say he is rather delusional, isn\'t he?" Pegasus said as his own monster, one of the Hex-Sealed monsters, was destroyed.

"Yeah," I said before tapping my downface card. "And this is going to really upset him. I activate my trap card Starry Knight Arrival. Though... it should have been called Starry Knight Departure."

Pegasus sighed. "The lawyers got concerned with the names we chose-"

"Yeah, I saw the packet. Cassie was pissed."

"So we had to slap a bunch of them on there last might."

Good Bruno frowned as he saw my Starry Night, Starry Dragon disappear from the field. "What did that do?"

"Oh, it just allows me to return Starry Night, Starry Dragon to my hand. And thanks to my field spell I can now draw one card."

"But it leaves you open for an attack!" Bad Bruno shouted. "Do it, Bruno! Attack him! Eliminate him from the game!"

"I was going to, though my High Avatar isn\'t strong enough to take all his lifepoints. Though I suppose you\'ll be happy with some..." he trailed off as The Fire King High Avatar Garunix called forth an inferno of flames that raced right towards me.

I smirked as I tapped my graveyard and Starry Knight Orbitael appeared once more on the field.

"When I returned my Starry Night, Starry Dragon to my hand it allowed me to special summon orbitael to the field." The flames engulfed it all the same, returning my angel back to the graveyard. "But his part was done and now my lifepoints are safe."

Good Bruno set a card on the field before nodding to Pegasus, who looked utterly delighted. "Oh, is it my turn again? My, this tag dueling is rather fun, even if I haven\'t done much so far! I\'ve gotten caught up watching all the combos and strategies. It is just like when I watched my boys go off to college."

"...no one wants to hear about your sick sexual desires," Bad Bruno exclaimed.

"I think he means his ACTUAL sons, you idiot," I said, vaguely remembering that in Yu-Gi-Oh R he had adopted a few kids.

"I did," Pegasus said, shooting Bad Bruno a dirty look. "Thank you for equating me rescuing some at risk children with being a sexual fiend. I truly appreciate it." He selected a card from his hand. "For that... I am no longer going to go gentle on you."

\'Fuuuuuck,\' I thought to myself as, even without the Millennium Eye, I could FEEL the power radiating off of Pegasus. I made a mental note that no matter what I would be utterly polite to any kids he had as apparently Pegasus was a Papa Wolf.

"Now, I should explain my deck to you, I suppose. After I lost to Yugi-Boy and then suffered the theft of my Millennium Eye I was rather down and depressed. I felt like I had lost so much. I floundered, unable to find a way back to the surface in the sea of despair I\'d sunken into. I believed that there was nothing I could do to rise again. And while I did manage to bring my head above water I thought that perhaps I should give up being anything more than the playful fa?ade I had made for myself. After all... people seemed to like smiling Pegasus over serious Pegasus.

"But then I began to think about all I had done and how much work I needed to do in order to make right all that I had done wrong... and I knew for that I needed to not shove aside my darker impulses but embrace them. Oh, I will still wield my delightful Toon monsters but... well... for every Lucky Rabbit there is the more adult fare."

He smiled and let out a soft chuckle.

"Let me show you. I start by summoning the Golden-Eyed Idol!" The Thousand-Eyed Idol appeared, only with a healthy splash of gold leaf applied to it, doing a merry little jig before thrusting its arms out wide. "And now thanks to its effect I can look over one person\'s hand and see all their cards."

"Of course you\'d make a card like that," I said with a chuckle as Pegasus made his way over to Bad Bruno.

"No," the duelist said.

"Then you refuse to compete and you lose the duel," Pegasus informed him and, after a moment, Bad Bruno grumbled and thrust out his cards.

"Hmmm... interesting... but nothing I need to fear this turn. Good to know." He walked back to our side of the field. "Next I will activate Fusion Recycling Plant!" The field spell activated and under my Starry Knight Sky a factory appeared, quietly working even in the middle of the night, little robots going through the refuse that it generated looking for good bits. "First this field spell allows me to discard one card in order to add a Polymerization card to my hand." Pegasus did just that. "And now I use my Thousand-Eyes Idol and the Fusion Parasite in my hand to summon forth my Thousand-Eyes Restrict!"

\'Fucking hell he isn\'t playing!\' I mentally screamed as Pegasus\' Ace Monster from Duelist Kingdom appeared on the field.

"And I do believe that your Fire King would make a lovely addition to my monster, so I\'ll just freeze him in place and allow my Thousand-Eyes Restrict to consume him." The phoenix began to scream and screech, fighting against the pull as Restrict pulled it into its maw.

"Sorry," Good Bruno said, flipping his facedown. "I can\'t allow that. I activate Circle of the Fire Kings, which allows me to destroy my Fire King High Avatar Garunix and summon back to the field my Fire King Avatar Arvata." A ring of fire appeared around the High Avatar, consuming it and turning it to dust that Thousand-Eyes Restrict spat out before the elephant flame wielder reappeared on the field, ready for battle.

"Very well then," Pegasus said, "I\'ll just use the effect of my Golden-Eyes Idol that was sent to the graveyard to force the merge again!"

"And I\'ll use Arvata\'s effect to destroy another Fire King monster, negating that."

Pegasus pressed his lips together at that.

"I do find it so annoying when one interrupts the show half way through."

"And I find it annoying that you are focused on him and not on ME!" Bad Bruno declared, thrusting out his hand. "You people... you keep focusing on everything BUT me! Forgetting that I exist. That is what has always happened, my entire life... people looking past me, away from me!"

"And you know why?" I charged. "It\'s because there is nothing there to see! \'He who screams \'I am the King\' is no king\'. That is how the saying goes." I threw my arms out wide. "You keep whining and complaining about how you deserve this, you should be given that. But you haven\'t done a damn thing to deserve anything. You waste your time on all these meaningless little traps and tricks when if you JUST put a fraction of that effort into SOMETHING productive..."

"It is productive!" Bad Bruno hissed, his face twisting in disgust and loathing. "It all leads to me defeating you!"

"Why?!" I shouted, flailing my arms about. "Do you even hear yourself at the moment? You have kidnapped people, turned a warehouse into a prison and a maze... all for petty revenge! You got paid for that damn tournament... did I cost you a damn bounty? I\'ll pay it right now if that will get you to let Good Bruno\'s niece go!"

"It isn\'t about money! It\'s never been about money!"

"Then what\'s it about?" I demanded. "What is any of this stupidity about?"

"You wouldn\'t understand," Bad Bruno hissed.

And then it hit me like a ton of very stupid bricks.

"You... you don\'t have a reason, do you?" I said slowly, staring at him incredulously. "You... you just want to defeat me... no... you want to KILL me... because you just want to do that." I let out an exhale of disbelief. "You\'re just a psychopath."

Bad Bruno stared me down... before cracking a deranged little smirk.

"Now you\'re catching on."

And with that he slammed his fist against a panel on the wall, causing it to break open and reveal a large red button.

"Oh in my experience Eddy-Boy such buttons are never a good thing... especially when they are big and red," Pegasus stated.

"We\'re finishing this duel," Bad Bruno said. "Because if we don\'t... I am going to press this button and blow this entire warehouse sky high."

Good Bruno turned at standard at his employer in shock. "Are you mad?"

"Yes," Bad Bruno hissed. "Yes I am. I am MAD that you people keep telling me what I can and can\'t do. This entire stinking world confining me by its rules and laws. Well... no more. Oh... no more. I am going to do what I want, when I want, and none of you are going to stop me anymore. We are going to duel and I will defeat you Edwin Chaos."

"And if you can\'t... what?" I asked. "What happens then? You show up in another 6 months with another deranged little scheme? Is this what you want, Bruno? Trapped in an eternal cycle of defeat and revenge until judgment day and trumpets blare?"

"No," Bad Bruno said, shaking his head, eyes nearly as manic as Yami Marik\'s. He was getting twitching and I REALLY didn\'t like his hand near that button. "If you... somehow manage to defeat me..." He glanced at Good Bruno. "Or rather if I can\'t defeat you myself... I will just duel you again. And if I lose I will duel you again. And again. And. Yet. Again. Until... I defeat you." He slowly tilted his head to the left, eyes never blinking, gaze never wavering. "And then I will decide if that was a good enough win. Perhaps I want a hard fought battle, full of ups and downs where victory could belong to either of us. Or maybe it would be better to crush you like a bug the first turn. I don\'t know... we\'ll just have to keep doing this until I decided which one is better. Which one makes me feel happy. Perhaps... defeating you for eternity is just what the doctor ordered."

He drew a card.

"Let\'s find out, shall we?"