Pharaoh's Gate Ch1:- Prisoners of War

A hollow gushing of wind let out a continuous moan under the darkness of the wet and damp brick of the castle underbelly. Tall cages littered around the vast room suspended in the air by rusted brown metal pathways. A man with tanned skin and spiked platinum hair leered into one of the opened cages in the face of one of his captors. His eyes were dull and vacant to the battered man that was in front of him. "I am Marik Ishtar, your captor." He pulled out an arm from his dark turquoise cape, embroidered with the stains of dried blood. In his clenched hand he held a gold, upturned pyramid. Upon the top of it rested a heavy silver chain as if it were some kind of oversized necklace.

"You... when did you..." The man with the tri-coloured hair inside the cage barked, his violet eyes were focused intently on the object Marik held in hand "...just what kind of game is this?"

"Game?" Marik cackled with wheezy laughs "I guess you could call it that. But I can assure you and your comrades are not the ones that shall partake in my 'fun'. Just take a look around at your situation Yami."

The Pharaoh looked around and saw his friends in silver rusted cages not too far away. He could make out Tristan not too far away. Just to the left of him was the closest of the cages, with Joey inside. He grabbed the bars of the cages rattling them furiously in the hope the steel would part ways. "Hey! You leave him alone, you got me!?"

Marik turned his head to the short-haired blonde "I will not be talked down by an insect!" His face refocused on Yami as he put away the Puzzle into some compartment behind his cape freeing both of his hands. He presented them both out as if he were in preparedness to cast some spell. Yami wanted to run, but his ankles shackled him from moving behind the crazed madman. Marik began to chant some benign Ancient Egyptian speil and hands spun around each other until a magic light of lavender formed at the center of them and shot it at Yami. The magic impact put an instant strain on his head and before he knew it, he was on the ground. His body lacked the strength to move and his head pulsed.

"You have much untapped power, Son of Ra," Marik's words were an ache to hear.

Something happened after that. Yami wasn't sure, but whatever the words that would play in his head next belonged to something or someone he didn't recognise.

The Lord of Darkness shall rise again.

For whatever reason, Yami reawoke to find that Marik no longer stood at his feet, but the cage door was still open. He heard footsteps in the distance but his thoughts were in disarray. "Are they leaving... or are they coming closer?" He felt his mind was forgetting something important, it was empty and hollow from the lack of his spirit-partner. He used one of his slender arms to push himself up and looked up at the metal chandelier frame above the cage, as if it were his only ray of light. "This must be some kind of dream."

It was then a shadow was cast over him causing him to look forwards. There he saw a girl standing there. She had brunette mid-length hair and hazel eyes. On top of her pink school uniform she wore a brown leather vest, which looked extremely out of place. Even more worryingly, she had the strangest gold bow on her back. There was a leather belt on her waist that was filled duel monster cards and a quiver of arrows. Yami thought it was the effects of his mind playing tricks on him.

"Just what are you dressed as Tea?" He questioned. He brushed his gold spiked bangs a little to get a better view.

"I'll explain that later. But right now we're in heaps of trouble! I'll set you free first and then the others."

Yami nodded. Tea grabbed a short metal instrument from the leather satchel on he leg and bent down close to Yugi. She got close to the lock on the shackle of his ankle and quickly inserted the metal lockpick into the keyhole and turned it. "Wow, this is easier than I thought!"

Within seconds, the shackle fell loose and one of his feet were free. "Tea, how did you just do that?"

"I don't know, but with these lockpicks I have I can just seem to open these with no effort at all!" Shortly after saying that, Tea finished with the second shackle, allowing Yami to step free. Tea stepped up and gave Yami his arm and they both stood up together.

"I don't know how it's possible, but that RPG Joey showed us turned into some kind of Shadow Game. And now Marik's been messing with our heads."

"So that's why I don't remember what happened..."

"Now let's go free Joey and Tristan next!" Tea skipped over the metal rusted pathway. She saw Joey in the cage unconscious. "Joey! Joey!" She repeatedly called his name in a loud and chipper tone.

"Sshh, quieten down!" Yami's hand landed quickly on Tea's face to silence her.

It was then they both heard a loud yawn as the blonde teenager casually awoke. "Mmmm, had the weirdest dream I was being chased by a Kuriboh..." He suddenly realized he wasn't in his bedroom and quickly looked around "Hey... uh, am I still dreaming? Where the heck am I? I'm sure the last thing I remember was that we played that game and..."

Tea unlocked the door and it casually swung open. Joey stood up and then gave a quick bow "Hey, uh thanks. But what's with the crazy get up?"

Yami expelled some explanations to his friend "It seems like we're stuck in some kind of twisted Shadow Game of Marik Ishtar set up. He must have done something to your Pharoah's Gate game you had there, because I'm starting to think we're in it."

"For real?" Joey replied "No wonder this place looked so familiar! So... we just have to beat old Marik Ishtar here to win right?"

"We should focus on escaping first." Yami concluded folding his arms. "It will do us no good to chase a man unprepared. Let's go free Tristan now Tea."

The girl nodded, and the blonde haired boy got up to leave his prison but everyone stopped at the sound of a squeaking noise.

KUURRRIIIIII

Joey's front foot was left hanging in the air as a pair of yellow eyes on a brown ball of fluff gave a cute cry out aloud to stop it being stepped on. The man pulled his foot back to inspect it. "Aw man, I thought a cat just left a hairball in here! Not that that's any better 'is all I'm saying."

Yami placed his palm on his face. Tea just giggled. "Well I think it's kind of cute. It must have been sleeping this whole time! I'll call it Kuri!"

The Kuriboh stood up with it's tiny green legs and presented two white wings behind its back making all sorts of weird noises. It zoomed close into Joey's face before finding a place on his head. "Hey man, the doo is off limits you hear!?"

Tea and Yami just continued to giggle. "Alright, let's just press on shall we? We still have Tristan left to free, so please help us Tea."

The four of them, including the Winged Kuriboh wondered carefully over to the final cage. Like Yami, he had an odd hairstyle choice, his hair was pointed at the top. He was in his blue school uniform too, much like Yami and the pals. He seemed unusually quiet, contemplating on his surroundings. He rubbed his head. "Why does my noggin feel like a hammer fell on it?"

Tea approached the cage and quickly unlocked it. "Now you're free as well!" She smiled.

Tristan quickly leapt out of his bindings and took a look around "Aren't we down some members still?"

Yami folded his arms "Yes. Both Miho and little Yugi are still missing. For the latter I last saw Marik Ishtar with my Millennium Puzzle."

For some reason Tea placed her hand on her chest and began to pant as if she was having a panic attack. In her mind flashed the image of blood stains and the scream of a woman. The three men immediately tried to aid her but she then relaxed. "It's alright, I'm fine." Tea began to walk slowly to an opening light on the central left-hand door. "If we enter through here, we can get back our belongings. Fortunately our captor didn't leave our things too far from our own cells. I saw some other strange items in that room as well."

Yami raised an eyebrow intrigued "What like?"

"You'll see soon enough."

The room beyond the holding cells was a moderately sized room with various bloodied instruments hung up above a wooden desk. On desk Yami scanned his eyes over a book with the title 'Lord of Darkness'. It was the same words he had heard within his head... perhaps it was a clue to what Marik Ishtar's role was in the game. Such a title befitted such a madman filled with bloodlust. Tea walked over to a giant brown chest "This entire complex is some kind of sick torture chamber. Gives you a good idea into Marik's mind doesn't it?" She placed both of her hands on the chest and attempted to lift up it's heavy lid. The other three gathered around and looked in awe as Tea pushed it open to reveal the treasure inside. Joey reached his hands inwards immediately and pulled out a strange gold sword and a small black box "Hey! There's a a whole booty of treasure here!"

Tristan ducked as Joey swung the huge sheathed sword wildly in the air like a cricket bat "Be careful with that!" The Kuriboh on Joey's head imitated Tristan and then bonked Joey lightly on the head with it's tiny green hand. "Ouch, but hey, what's this slot on this sword for?" He pointed to the handle, where it had a moderately sized recess where paper could be inserted. Yami reached inside the chest and pulled out a similar small black box. Opening it, he gasped as the brown card backs magically shone for a few moments. "Hey, these are Duel Monster cards!" He turned the deck of cards over and saw the print of familiar creatures on the backs of them. Dark Magician, Celtic Gaurdian and Dark Magician Girl. "Not only that, it seems these cards are my own cards."

Joey was curious and proceeded to open his own box. "Hey you're right, there's my Red-Eyes in here!"

Tristan pulled out a box and a gold Mace weapon. At the base of it, it had a flat section for something to be placed "I think all these weapons are also really whacky duel disks."

Tea pointed to the flat area on her bow, where arrows were supposed to be loaded. "That's what I thought too. I also snagged my own deck of cards.

"How the heck do we play this game with only one slot for a card?" Tristan asked curiously.

Yami lifted out a piece of lightweight armour from the chest "I don't know. But I'm sure if we try to play the game by its rules we'll find out. I would suggest at least taking a piece of the armour strewn in here. It seems this will be no friendly Shadow Game."

After some time assembling the party were finally done with preparations. Yami had placed on some rather light yet elaborate gold and silver chestplate with an engraving of the Wdjat upon its collar. Joey was equipped with leather bracers with silver embossing. Tristan chose a cape, it wasn't necessary, but he argued that it looked good on him. Yami finished attaching the sheathed shortblade onto his waist. "We seem good to go. We should prioritize on finding Yugi Moto and Miho."

The party nodded and they marched through the room. The alleyway ahead got exceptionally dark only being lit by the orange flicker of candle light.

"Hey man, this place is way too creepy." Tristan reached out for Tea with grabby hands.

"Get away from me creep! Stop behaving like such a baby!"

Both Joey and the Kuriboh on his head sighed in unison. However, the comedy was shortlived when they were confronted by a bright light down the hallway.

"What is that...?" Joey squinted "A door to the outdoors? Did we make it already?"

They started to run down the hall and the light got larger and larger. Yami chuckled "That would have been far too easy." They were in a vast room and in front of them was an hourglass like object filled with sparking lightning.

Yami stepped forwards slowly onto the flesh coloured tiles, edging ever closer to the machination "This machine seems to be some kind of electric generator of sorts."

It was then electric bolts from the machine crackled and buzzed at his presence, triggering some kind of trap. The bolts of lightning seemed to stop in the air like ghosts the Pharoah could see pairs of angry looking eyes in them. "It's the duel monster, Electric Virus!"

Joey jumped forward "Oh great, time to play then!" He unsheathed his greatsword with a card in hand and placed it into the slot below the sword handle. "Here goes nothing... I summon you old pal!"

A spark of light emitted from the blade and a black energy shot forth in front of him. Before long, the Red Eyes Black dragon stood in front of him and roared. "Okay pal! Crush em!" The Red Eyes swept forth a claw and stomped the living lightning.

"No! Joey, don't do that!" Yami cried "You should have summoned something other than a Dragon!"

Joey stared at the still black dragon "Ehh... why not?"

It was then lightning shot up the body of the Red Eyes, until it was sparking and golden. Yami jumped backwards and placed a card down on his short sword's handle. "In Duel Monsters, the Electric Virus can take control of any Machine or Dragon type monster!"

"Oh poopy... that's not good!"

"I summon you, Dark Magician Girl!" In front of Yami appeared a tall young blonde girl in rediculous blue elven robes appeared before him. She held out a green oak staff and pointed it at the dragon seperating the Electric Virus from Joey's Red-Eyes. However the electric bolt monsters continued to dart around the room at an unpredictable pace. Tristan of all people was sure that they were increasing in number. "I'm pretty sure we only had two when we started out!"

Joey hopped back as he returned his dragon card to the bottom of his deck. "If dey keep increasing like this, we'll be in big trouble!"

The Pharaoh looked up at the electric generator in the room. "The solution must be to do with this electric generator here, perhaps if we aim our attacks at that... Dark Magician Girl! Unleash your fury upon this machine and end this conflict!"

His elven mage giggled and gave a casual hop into the air firing another blast from her rod. It came in impact with the generator, but it wasn't the least bit scratched. In the place of the explosion, another Electric Virus monster appeared. There were now six or more of them in the room.

Tristan lifted a card out of his deck to reveal a yellow bordered card "Aw man, we can't use machines or dragons right? I guess this Robotic Knight is out of the question." Before Tristan could react, the glowing fizzle of one of the electric fiends entered his personal space, its crazy red eyes flickered on its lightning composed body. It was like a tv screen had been possessed by a demon. Without thinking, Tristan swiped the air with his Duel Disk hybrid mace and the demon gave a moaning cry before fizzling out into nothing. "Hey you know, these really do work!"

Yami unsheathed his gold short-sword "I guess these are all part of that 'game' we decided to play, but as you can see, simply hitting these creatures won't solve our problem." He pointed as another electric fiend appeared and then proceeded to slash it as it homed in on him. Dark Magician Girl also took out two more.

Tea shot an arrow from her bow "Taking them out now is no problem, but we need to find a way to stop them from appearing!"

Joey placed his fist on top of his other "Hey you know, you gave me an idea!"

"Oh?"

"I think there is a switch of some kind around this room here," He quickly scanned around to see the contents of the room and laid eyes on a large stone wheel with Egyptian inscriptions on it. "Yeah! There it is! Turning that thing off will also turn off the generator!"

Yami cheered "Excellent Joey!"

Tristan ran ahead a little and stood facing the generator "We'll hold them off, you go do what you usually do!"

Joey smiled "Thanks 'Trist" The Kuriboh on his head jumped off and started flying ahead of him, cutely trying to pull the lever all by himself. "Hey, Kuri man, I respect your generosity but there's no way you could push something so heavy yerself." The blonde grabbed the wheel by both hands and strained to pull it leftwards. "Gee, this thing is heavy!"

With some effort the stone wheel eventually made a clicking sound and with a heavy grind, began to turn. As he did so the light of the generator dimmed to a warm glow and to the friends relief, the monsters vanished from sight and their pale cries could no longer be heard.

The group gathered back together and Tea, Tristan and Joey cheered. Yami just grinned a little as he usually did, his dark eyes always made it seem unintentionally sinister though. "There seems to be only one pathway out of here, so let's press on."

Tea seemed unusually uncomfortable as they proceeded down the dark path. Yami could sense the choking atmosphere around her and quickly sped up his pace until he was at level distance with her. He kept his face focused forwards "Tea are you quite alright?"

The brunette girl stopped in her tracks "I'm sorry. It's just I don't know if I can take all of this. It feels like some crazy dream."

"Tea, don't blame yourself. If anything, blame the crazy wads who made this messed up game in the first place"

Yami looked at the American accented boy wearing the bracers "Speaking of which, Joey, can you remind me what happened before we wound up here? My head is still confused after whatever Marik was doing to us back there."