The God's Game Begins (Part 1)

DIMENSION: MANGA (The One That Saves the Day)

Bes. He was strumming his instrument like he had once before. "The pawns are set. You all know the game. I hope I do get to play a victory tune." He gestured outside the hotel. "I can't offer anything to help. I'm just that in between referee. If Zorc or Set break the rules, you automatically win."

"I don't care if we win that way or not." It was a phrase Yuugi never thought he'd say. This wasn't a clean match after all. He just needed to win, and try to spare any life he could too. He took his half of the millennium puzzle for good luck, and gave the other half to Atem.

"Head out. Zorc has his transportation ready for you outside. The pawns are set up."

They each headed out and saw a whirlwind of power. Yuugi walked up to it. "Stay here everyone. I will test it." He made his hand into a fist as he handed the baby over to Shizuka. "If I die, then we will win because of the broken rules."

"Yeah, so it won't kill you," Kaiba said for Atem. "Quit wishing and just play the game."

Yuugi went through it. He ended up in some kind of base in space. Of course.

The others came through soon after. He picked Hikaru back up from Shizuka.

Zorc and Set both appeared.

Set tossed bone dice to Atem. "Each one of you will roll the dice to decide the order."

They rolled and re-rolled for draws until they had their order. Set. Kaiba. Jounouchi. Atem. Zorc. Yuugi. Bakura.

"Just in case, you didn't know?" Zorc said slyly. "This is far from duel monsters. Don't expect any of the same rules. It's about brute force, and who can take out their opponent's battleships. It doesn't matter how many sacrifices are in the way. Gods didn't play with things like mortality or wanting to play with infusions. It all came naturally to them, hence it will be made in the game when summoned. No toying around with sacrificing low level monsters or special fusion cards. Brute fucking strength. The battleships have been docked."

"Then the rules?" Atem asked. "Lay out all the rules."

"It's a simple game," Zorc replied. "You'll figure them out, but fine, a couple of questions."

"How much are the life points and how do we handle the deck then?" Jounouchi didn't waste any time. Everyone wanted to know. They were playing with varying life points, not knowing how the game would treat them.

"1600," Set answered for Zorc, "and you can only choose from your top five cards on your deck."

"8000 life points divided by five battleships. It should have been easy to guess," Zorc teased them. "What a waste of a question."

"1600?" Jounouchi questioned. "That's all, just 1600?"

"Oh, don't worry. It gets better," Zorc said. "The battleship will count for the initial power of the first attack, but any nearby victims aren't harmed unless the monster is too powerful."

Too powerful. ///Yuugi: Damn Zorc! He knew we would want the strongest monsters!///

"What about defense?" Kaiba questioned. "If my monster's defense is 3000, is it harmless like in the game when it defeats an opponent?"

"You mean the monster disappear and poof, no harm?" Zorc smiled. "I am sure you would all want that."

"A monster in defense should be destroyed or helped," Yuugi agreed with Kaiba. "Anything else wouldn't count."

"It's not duel monsters, it's a gods game," Zorc reminded them. "Gods play it for fun. If Kaiba defended Honda's 1600 with 3000? The power would wipe out the attacker, with blowback."

Blowback? "What is blowback?" Atem insisted.

"If the attacked monster were say 1000. Kaiba's monster had 3000. It will take out 2000 life points. If the monster had 1000, it will still take out 1000 points somewhere, defense or attack," Zorc said waving his hand around. "There is no life points for the player, the gods didn't put such a silly thing. Instead, most likely, an innocent victim nearby suffers. It wouldn't kill them, but greatly wound them since it wouldn't take all 1600 life points."

Blowback. "And you now just mention this?" Atem accused him.

"You think you would be happy, Atem," Set interrupted him. "At least the explosions don't wipe out lives in a whole building or something. No destruction of that kind."

"Calculated. Precise," Zorc said with a nod of his head. "Blowback won't even do anything if there is nothing to take lifepoints from nearby. Although, if the monster used were even stronger, and the defending monster so much weaker? Well, that probably won't turn out as well."

Shizuka pulled on Kaiba's sleeve. "I'm not so good at that kind of math."

"I excelled at it. We'll be fine," he insisted. "What about our living cards?"

"Ah, the living cards. You want to know about those?" Zorc asked.

"We want to know all the rules to this game, not just the general!" Atem was losing it. "You didn't tell us about blowback, and you have yet to mention the living cards score. Knowing the rules and keeping them to yourself should be a form of cheating."

"It's not cheating," Set disagreed, "because it won't change the game. Just tactics until you figure out the rules. No different than seeing an opponent playing a card you've never seen before."

"Am I an extra 1600 to Atem?" Jounouchi asked. "Will someone answer that? Is it controlled the same way?"

"Actually, you are worth more," Zorc said to Jounouchi, "because you also get the bonus of the puzzle."

"Which will probably be taken away. Right?" Jounouchi asked. "Given by gods kind of thing? Or does it count with the sacrifices being the reason for it?"

"Oh no, you are right on the money." Zorc smiled and giggled, just like Anzu. He dipped backwards in a little dance. "Sacrifices bend rules. For the duration of this game, actually, it is Atem's body that will be lost."

"Wha-?"

///Atem: t? Yuugi?///

///Yuugi: Atem?/// They were sharing the same body again. The millennium puzzle was around their neck.

"Atem's body was a gift from the gods," Set reminded them. "So, yes, as unfair as it is, when you use your living card, he will be worth an extra 3200 with you and Yuugi, plus 1600 of his life points to the 2500 of his living card."

"7300 points. You can cause some permanent damage with that one," Zorc chuckled.

"With just me summoning Black Magician, it's only 2500," Jounouchi put together. "Right?"

"Someone else's specialty isn't math." Kaiba looked toward Jounouchi. "It'll be 4100."

///Yuugi: That can still do a lot of damage just with Jounouchi alone, let alone what we do if we summon him./// Yuugi looked at the cards, but they were swiped away.

Next to them was Atem's unconscious body. His cards were swiped too.

"Hey!" Jounouchi yelled as Set and Zorc took the cards and started to mix them up. "What are you doing?"

"They are two characters in one body. They get one set of cards," Zorc answered with a wiggle of her hips. "It makes it more fair since you get such a nice power boost. Have to play fair. You've all always been about being fair and just."

"Not me," Bakura corrected him. "I'm pretty sure if we could cheat and win, we'd all take that too."

Yuugi watched as his cards were given back. Half of them. Mixed with Atem's. "Any strategies could be wasted now." Of course they would get underhanded like that. ///Yuugi: We will still defeat them./// "I will get Anzu back. It doesn't matter what you do to stop us, we are getting all of our friends back and saving the world!"