Yugioh Card Maker Forum

Kim started preparing for this very special day in her life. Finally, I get to take the entrance exam to get into the Black Rose Duel Academy! I can't believe it's really happening! Kim continued to pack her bags for the academy. But there was still a weird feeling in Kim's gut. What's this weird feeling? I feel like something is missing. She took out her cell phone and read the text message from John which she has read a thousand times:

Kim, I have so much to say, but I want to make this quick. First, thank you for the Bad Eggs. I know you tried to use them, but for some reason you weren’t compatible with it. Maybe these decks are actually supposed to be used by two great friends like us. Also, I just want to really thank you for getting me to duel in that tag-duel despite the fact that I was terrified. It was a lot of fun and you were awesome. Another thing is that you are really brave to let the darkness stay inside of you. I guess the real thing I want to say is that I’ve never met another girl like you before. Despite the uncertainties of this world, I know one thing for certain: I will love you forever.

I love you too John. I know it's been a week since I got this message and I still haven't responded. I feel really bad about that, but whenever I read this message I lose all the words I want to say. Kim finished packing her bags and went to the kitchen. Her father made her some buttered toast, scrambled eggs, and bacon.

"Eat up, Kim. You have a big day ahead of you." Kim ate her breakfast. Mr. Shadow noticed Kim was feeling pretty down. "Hey cheer up. What's on your mind?" He then noticed the cell phone in her hand. "It's your boyfriend John isn't it? Look Kim, I know it's hard getting separated from someone you like, but that's just something you'll have to deal with. Seeing him once a year won't keep your relationship alive for very long. You should just forget about John and move on with your life. Don't worry Kim, you'll find someone else. The way you pick up boyfriends you'll find someone else."

"Dad, do you realize what you're asking me to do! You're asking me to just forget about my best friend, the only boy that has ever touched every place in my heart. I can never forget John, especially since he won't forget me."

"Whatever Kim. It seems you never want to listen to my words of wisdom, but whatever. Just remember that Black Rose Duel Academy is only a few blocks away from this house. Keep your bags here. If you happen to get into the Academy, come tell me and I'll help you move in. Also, although you're free to live in the dorm, if you need my help for anything, you can always visit or call here. Anyway, I think that was all I wanted to say. Let's get to the Academy, I think you're late." Mr. Shadow walked to the car and got in the front seat. Kim got in the back seat. They drove to the Academy. "Good luck Kim." Kim ran into the Academy.

She looked around. Looks pretty cool. She then looked at the desks. There wasn't a line at the sign that said "Applicants". Oh no, I'm late! She ran to the front of the desks. "Hey, am I late?"

"I'm sure that's plainly obvious, but I'm sure there's time for one more test duel. Let me just check." The lady at the desk made a quick call, then looked right back at Kim. "Sorry, there isn't any more-" At that time, a loud buzzer went off and a giant X turned red. "That's the signal that someone failed. Go to Duel Arena 4, they might allow you to do your test duel."

"All right. Thanks." Kim ran to Duel Arena 4 and opened the door. The people in the judging board were quite surprised and started debating.

"We've filled our capacity," said the man in a blue coat. "If we let this girl duel and she passes, she'll kick another student out. We cannot let her do her test duel."

"But that other duelist was mediocre," said the girl in the purple coat. "If this girl can do better than that mediocre duelist then we can get another future dueling star into this school."

"That other duelist wasn't mediocre; he was relatively good. I figure that this girl should just leave," said the man dressed in a green jacket.

"I have a better idea," said a young man dressed in a black suit. "I'll duel this kid. If she wins, we kick that mediocre boy out. If she loses she leaves."

"That works for us. After all, you're one of the better students here," replied the other 3 guys. The student stepped into the Duel Arena. "Hello there. I hope you're ready for your test duel." All the students gathered around Duel Arena 4. "What's your name?"

"My name is Kim. Who might you be?"

"My name is Hunter. It's nice to meet you. Now here's the deal with this duel: you win, you get into the school; you lose, you do not. Don't worry about that though, just try your best." Hunter's Duel Disk activated. Kim's Duel Disk activated.

"Let's duel!"

Hunter readied his duel disk. “I'll go first. I draw.” He drew a card. “I activate Sheep Farm, so once per turn I can summon a Sheep Token.” His Continuous Spell appeared on the field and a small round sheep appeared on the field (DEF 0). “Now I activate Cycle of Life. Now I summon my Predatory Beast Archfiend.” A demonic flying creature with horns appeared (ATK 1800). “Now I'll activate its effect, so I can tribute any number of monsters with lower level and my Archfiend gains 200 ATK times the total Level of monsters used. I choose to tribute my Sheep Token, so my Archfiend gains 200 ATK.” It opened its mouth and sucked in the sheep token. The demon grew a bit bigger (ATK 2000). “Now my Cycle of Life activates: Since I tributed my monster for the effect of a "Predatory Beast" monster, I can Special Summon a "Beast Prey" monster from my Deck, so I choose to summon my Beast Prey Mink.” A small mink appeared on the field (DEF 0). “I'll end my turn.”

“ It's my turn then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. “I activate Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” A forest appeared around them. A pink banner tied to 2 trees has “Scavenger Hunt” written on it. “I activate Easter Egg 10 from my deck using my Scavenger Hunt's effect.” A green and blue striped egg with a pink 10 appeared. “Now I activate Easter Egg 10's effect: I special summon a monster from my hand and you special summon a monster that is two Levels lower from your Deck. I summon my Easter Egg Scouter. As the egg turned gray, a man with an egg-shaped head wearing a pink bandanna appeared (ATK 1600).

“I summon my Beast Prey Junco.” A small bird appeared (DEF 0).

“ Now I add Easter Egg 3 to my hand using my Scouter's ability. Now I activate it from my hand and I'll activate its special ability, so I draw a card.” A green and blue striped egg with a pink 3 appeared and immediately turned gray as Kim drew a card. “Now I remove Easter Egg 3 from play using my Scavenger Hunt's ability.” The egg with the 3 disappeared. “Now I summon Dragon of the Many Eggs.” A medium-sized green dragon with blue stripes, blue wings, and big pink claws appeared (ATK 2100). “Now I activate my Miraculous Egg Emergence, so I send Easter Egg 10 to the Graveyard to activate 5 Easter Eggs from my Deck, so I activate Easter Eggs 2, 4, 7, 8, and 9.” The egg with the 10 was replaced by 5 eggs of similar design, but they each had a different pink number: 2, 4, 7, 8, and 9. “Now I activate their effects: 2: You lose 500 Life Points,” a gray aura weakened Hunter (Hunter 7500), “4: You discard a card,” Hunter discarded a card, “7: I destroy a monster you control, so I'll choose your Mink,” the mink disappeared, “8: I destroy a Spell or Trap, so I'll destroy your Cycle of Life,” the Continuous Spell disappeared, “and 9: I gain 250 Life Points and you lose 250).” A white aura surrounded Kim as it recovered her Life Points (Kim 8250) and a gray aura appeared around Hunter as it weakened him (Hunter 7250). All the Eggs turned gray. “Now I'll attack your Archfiend with my Dragon,” her dragon with pink claws slashed at the demonic creature (Hunter 7150), “and I'll destroy your Junco with my Scouter.” The man then grew claws, grabbed the junco in his claw, and crushed it. His claws then sunk back into his hand. “I end my turn. Now my Eggs are removed from play and are treated as being removed by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” The eggs disappeared.

“During your End Phase, since my Mink was destroyed, I summon 5 Beast Prey Mink Tokens.” 5 small minks appeared (all ATK 0). “Now it's my turn, so I draw.” Hunter drew a card. “I tribute 2 of my Minks for Predatory Beast Rex (ATK 3200).” A huge dinosaur with huge claws appeared. “Now I activate its effect, so I tribute my other tokens to increase my Rex's ATK. The total Levels of my 3 tokens is 12, and my Rex gets 400 ATK points for each Level, so he gains 4800 ATK.” The Dinosaur opened his mouth and the Minks flew into his mouth. He grew so large his head almost hit the roof of the stadium (ATK 8000). “Now I'll have Rex destroy your Easter Egg Scouter.” It stepped on the man with the bandanna (Kim 1850). “Now activates my Rex's effect: since it destroyed a monster by battle, you take 1000 points of damage.” The dinosaur then roared really loud directly at Kim. The crowd was blocking its ears (Kim 850). “Now I can activate my Sheep Farm, so I get another Sheep Token.” Another small round sheep appeared (DEF 0). “I end my turn.”

“It's my turn then. I draw.” She draw a card. I still don't have the card I need. “I activate Easter Egg 1 from my deck and I'll use its effect: I gain 500 Life Points.” A green and blue egg with a pink 1 appeared and it turned gray as a white aura healed Kim (Kim 1350). “I switch my Dragon to defense mode” the Dragon crouched down and put its claws in front of it (DEF 1300) “and I'll place a card face-down, I remove my Easter Egg 1 from play and I'll end my turn.” The egg disappeared.

“Well it was nice dueling you. I draw. I get another Sheep Token now.” Another Sheep appeared (DEF 0). “Now I summon Undead Predatory Beast.” A zombie with big teeth appeared (ATK 1600). “Now I tribute my two Sheep Tokens to give my zombie a power boost.” The zombie opened its mouth and sucked the sheep into its mouth (ATK 2000). “Now Rex, attack that Dragon.” The dinosaur stomped on the dragon. “Now you lose another 1000 points.” The dinosaur roared (Kim 350). “Undead Predatory Beast, attack!”

“ I activate my Explosive Cylinder. It negates a direct attack and deals damage to you equal to the ATK of your monster times 1.5.” A cylinder trapped the zombie inside, aimed at Hunter, and exploded. The zombie shot right at Hunter (Hunter 4150).

“I set a card and end my turn. You put up a decent fight, but you don't have a chance at getting into this academy anymore.” Especially with my face-down Magic Cylinder.

“ Oh yeah? Watch this! I draw!” Perfect! “I activate Easter Egg 5 from my deck, but I'll immediately remove it from play without using its effect.” The egg quickly appeared and disappeared. “Now I summon my Easter Knight.” A woman dressed in green and blue armor with a green and blue sword appeared (ATK 2400). “Easter Knight can be Special Summoned when I have 5 Easter Eggs removed from play by "Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt". Now I equip my Easter Knight with Easter Egg Scepter, which gives my Easter Knight a power boost.” A green and blue scepter with an Egg-shaped tip appeared in Easter Knight’s right hand (ATK 3400). “Now I use the effect of my Easter Egg Scepter, so I can activate the effect of the Easter Egg 8 I have removed from play, so I can destroy your face-down card.” An “8” appeared on the egg-shaped tip and it released a laser at the face-down. The face-down was destroyed. “Now I'll attack your Undead Predatory Beast with my Knight.” The knight released a powerful magical blast at the zombie. The zombie disintegrated (Hunter 2750).

“Why even bother attacking? Why didn't you destroy my Rex with your card effect?”

“You'll see, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon, so I can destroy my Scepter.” A storm suddenly appeared and almost completely destroyed the scepter. “Once my Scepter is sent to the Graveyard, it sends all my removed Easter Eggs to the Graveyard and you take 500 damage for each one.” The scepter let out one last magical blast before crumbling away (Hunter 0).

Walter walked over to Kim as all the students slowly dispersed. "Good duel Kim. I'm very impressed. I thought I had you beat with my 8000 ATK monster, but you proved me wrong. Now let's see what the teachers have to say." He led Kim to the judging table. "So what rank will she be in?"

"We have decided that Kim will be in Rank 3 - Lonefire Blossom."

"What does that mean?"

"In this school we have 7 ranks: Level 1 - Samsara Lotus, Level 2 - Rainbow Flower, Level 3 - Lonefire Blossom, Level 4 - Botanical Lion, Level 5 - Trent, Level 6 - Rose Tentacles, and Level 7 - Black Rose Dragon. Level 7, often referred to as the 2-Tribute Level, is reserved for the teachers and the best students. Levels 5 and 6, the 1-Tribute Levels, are for the better-than-average students. Levels 1-4, the lower Levels, are for the average and weaker students. Don't be discouraged that you're a Level 3 though; nobody is higher than Level 4 when they enter the school. Now that that's decided, fill out this application form." Kim looked over the form. It asked the basic questions: name, age, size of clothes, etc. She quickly filled it out and handed it back. "Okay good. Now you can choose what color jacket you want." The teacher in the green jacket took out fabrics of many colors. "Don't worry, the color jacket you wear doesn't determine your rank; in this school, badges are sewn onto your coat. You get a new jacket every year or every time you change ranks. We also check to see if your uniform fits you well at these times. If you need a new uniform we will give you one. Now choose the color of jacket you want."

Kim looked at all the colors. Every color she could imagine was shown. One color stuck out to her the most though: black. Why does black stick out to me for some reason? Maybe it has something to with the darkness inside me? "I choose black."

“Interesting choice,” said the teacher in green. “Very few people choose white and black. I can understand that white gets stained easily, but I don’t understand why black isn’t chosen often. Anyway, here are your directions to your dorm room. You are in the girls’ dorm, Building 1, Room C6. Here is your key.” He handed Kim a credit card-like device. “You need this to get into the girls’ dorm area, into Building 1, into the C sector, and then Room 6. Make sure you never lose this card. You need it to let visitors in. What else is there? Oh yeah. Your uniform will be delivered to your dorm room. Be sure to wear it every day during school time. In fact, usually, because of all the moving in, finding your way around, and everything else, the uniform is already in their dorm room by the time they get there, so don’t worry about when your uniform will arrive. Anyway, I think that’s everything you need to know right now. If you have any questions, you can ask them tomorrow. Oh, and one more thing: there is a newcomer party tonight at 8:00 in the main duel arena room. You should wear your uniform to that too. You will also be able to ask questions and meet your teacher and classmates. Anyway, I’m sure you have a lot of moving in to do. You should probably find out where your room is, find out who you’re rooming with, and get to know them. We should actually start preparing for tomorrow.” The teachers then left the room.

“The reason very few people wear white and black jackets is because those colors are associated with Light and Dark. Not only is that a reason, but there is a rumor that all the students who wear black jackets are part of a group called the Wicked Warlocks. It is rumored that they are like the Cabal of this school. On the flip side, the people with the white jackets are rumored to be the Ethical Enchanters. It is rumored that these people keep the Wicked Warlocks in check, kind of like the Enforcers. Just remember you’re associated with the Cabal, anything can happen. Be careful Kim.”

“Okay then. Thanks Hunter.” Kim then ran outside and called her father. “Hey dad. Yeah, I got into the Duel Academy. You mean the car already has all my stuff in it and you’re riding here? Cool. I’ll be waiting for you at the front door of the school.” Kim looked at John’s text message again. I wish I could respond to this message, but I simply don’t have the words. I never have the words when I look at this message. Maybe I’ll find them eventually. She then saw her father in the car with all of her stuff. She ran over to the car. “So you brought everything?”

“Yep. Just help me unload it all.” He opened the trunk and the back doors. “The good thing about living in Old Satellite for a long time is that, when you eventually move, you don’t have a lot of stuff to move. Now grab the bag in the back seat and let’s start moving you in.” Kim grabbed one of the bags with her left hand. She kept her card key in the right hand. He father grabbed the two suitcases and shut all the doors. Kim led the way to the girls’ dorm gate. She put the key into the slot and quickly pulled it out. The gate opened. He then found Building 1 and opened the door in a similar way. Then she found Hallway C. She used her card key again, but she had to open the door after it unlocked. It was the same situation with Room 6. Mr. Shadow parked the suitcases in the room. “Well now that that’s taken care of, I hope you have fun Kim. Call me if you ever need anything. Bye Kim.” He left the room. Soon after, the door opened again. A slender girl about Kim’s height with short, bright red hair walked into the room and closed the door.

“Hey,” said the red haired girl in an unenthusiastic voice. “What’s your name?”

“Kim. What’s your name?”

“You can call me Heather.” A Fox Fire spirit then appeared next to her.

“I see you have a Duel Spirit, Fox Fire. Do you like that card?”

“It’s a good card.” There was a knock at the door. Kim opened the door. Kim opened the door. There were two big boxes outside the door with notes on top. One said “Kim Shadow’s Duel Uniform.” Kim then looked at the other box. Heather ran in the way of view. “Oh good, the school uniforms are here. I’ll take this one.” She lifted the box. “I’ll go change in the bathroom; you change in the main room. Knock on the bathroom door when you’re done changing.” Heather walked into the bathroom with the box. Kim unpacked her box and looked at her uniform. It was similar to the uniform Akiza wore when she went to a Duel Academy, except the jacket was black and the badge was different. The square badge had a picture of Lonefire Blossom in the background with 3 stars at the top and BRDA written in black at the bottom. Kim put on her uniform and then looked at her Duel Disk. It was a standard duel disk modeled like Akiza’s duel disk, except it had a black and grey trim. She then put it on her left hand and then knocked on the bathroom door. Heather opened the door. She opened the door. The first thing Kim noticed was that Heather had her white Duel Disk on her right arm. “So, you’re a member of the Wicked Warlocks?”

“No, why does that matter to you?” Then Kim noticed her jacket was white. “You’re a member of the Ethical Enchanters?”

“Yes, I am an Ethical Enchantress. I see that you’re a Level 3 duelist. I’m a Level 4 duelist. Anyway, are you excited for the newcomers party?”

“Yeah. So it’s at 8?”

“Yep. What time is it now?”

“I don’t know.” Kim looked around for a clock, and then took out her cell phone. “It’s 1. That party is 7 hours off. What do you want to do until then? I suppose we could pass the time with a duel.”

“No thanks. I watched your duel with Hunter; you were pretty much beat, but you happened to get a lucky draw to win. Not just that, but I’m a Level 4 duelist.”

“Rank doesn’t mean anything.”

“You’ll see that it does in this school. Not only that, but I came here from the main part of the city, so I have the best cards. You don’t have a shot.”

“Listen, I-”

“Shut it.” Kim and Heather started unpacking everything. “I figure we should draw a line representing who has which side of the room.”

“Aren’t we a bit old for that?” Heather then took out two red cones and placed one in the front of the room and the other in the back of the room.

“You are on the side closest to the door and the bathroom and I am on the other side of the cones. The only times I will cross to your side are to go to the bathroom, leave the room, or to see who’s at the door. Your duty is to open the door for the visitors since you’re closer to the door. Understand?”

“What’s up with this rule? Why can’t we just room together peacefully without these red cones?”

“This makes everything a bit more organized.” Kim and Heather then continued unpacking. They then waited for 7 to come. Kim then stood up.

“Heather, it’s 7. We should probably leave to go that meeting. After all, this campus is pretty big. We should explore it a bit.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” Heather stood up and they left their room. Kim made sure she had her card key in hand. Kim then went toward the main building while Heather went off in another direction.

What is she doing? Maybe she’s going to see one of her friends who also came here. Either way I’ll find the duel arena place in time. Kim kept walking around the hallways. Every door she came to was a teacher’s room. A lady in a black cloak passed by Kim. Kim looked at the lady. Kim saw the lady’s purple hair and her red-trimmed Duel Disk. It looked exactly like Akiza’s Duel Disk. Kim then ran in front of the lady and looked up at her. It was indeed Akiza. “Hey, Miss Izinski.”

“Hey there. Are you going to that newcomers party?”

“Yeah. Why are you here?”

“I’m always here at the beginning of the year. I put on my Black Rose outfit and give a short speech. Then I duel one of the students.”

“May I be that student, Miss Izinski?”

“You can call me Akiza. After all, I don’t teach here.” Akiza then looked at Kim’s badge. “You’re a Level 3 – Lonefire Blossom. Good level for a newcomer. Very few people get into Level 4 when they enter, but they get promoted to Level 4 quite easily. Anyway, you seem like a good duelist. I’d be happy to take your challenge. Let’s duel on the stage though. I have 15 minutes to prepare.”

“Wait, how do I get to the main duel arena room?”

“Go down that hallway, take the first right, and continue forward.”

“Thanks Akiza.” Kim then followed Akiza’s directions to the main duel arena room. Wow, this place is huge! It has 4 duel platforms. Three of them were covered with food and many other things. There were many tables with food, as well as many people in the room. She then saw a boy dressed in white. She started to walk towards him. Heather and 3 other girls then swarmed him. Kim then took out her cell phone to check the time. It was 8. Kim walked closer to the uncovered duel arena. Then, the lights dimmed and a man with a green jacket stepped on the uncovered duel arena. A spotlight turned on him.

“Welcome incoming students. My name is Chancellor Sludge. I organize many of the events that happen in the school and I make sure everything flows smoothly. I don’t want to take up too much of your time, so I’ll just say that if you have any questions, you can ask a teacher or ask me. Also, over on the wall all the way on the right of me, you’ll see the teachers and the list of students that they will teach. Anyway, I know you students didn’t come here to see me, so let me introduce the main lady, the Black Rose, Miss Akiza Izinski.” The crowd started clapping as the figure with the white mask, the long purple bangs, the black cloak, black fingerless gloves, and red Duel Disk appeared. The Black Rose stepped up to the stage and took off her mask.

“A long time ago, I was known as the Black Rose, a wicked psychic with telekinetic powers. I blamed my mark as the source of my powers. I then met a person who promised to help me, Sayer. He made me feel as though everything was all right. Then I met somebody else who stayed in my mind forever: Yusei Fudo. He told me I could be happy if I thought for myself. I didn’t believe it because Sayer made me happy and I really didn’t need to think. Later I found out that Sayer was only using me for my Psychic powers and that Yusei was my real friend after all. Since he supported me no matter what, I make sure to try to support Yusei in what he does somehow, even if it is only cheering for him on the sidelines. Now without further ado, let’s get to something everybody can enjoy: a duel. Ordinarily I would challenge somebody in the crowd, but today somebody challenged me to a duel and I told her to wait for the party to duel. You know who you are, so get ready and get up on the duel arena.” Kim got up onto the Duel Arena and activated her Duel Disk. “I don’t believe I got your name.”

“Kim.”

“Alright Kim. Let’s duel!”

“It's my move. I draw.” Akiza drew a card. “I summon my Violet Witch.” Violet Witch appeared on the field (ATK 1100). “I set 3 cards and end my turn.”

“It's my move then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. This hand isn't the greatest one, but it will have to do. “I activate Cross of the Dimensions, so we each activate a Field Spell from our hands, decks, or graveyards. I activate my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” A forest appeared around them. A pink banner tied to 2 trees has “Scavenger Hunt” written on it.

“I activate Black Garden.” Except for the two trees with the Scavenger Hunt banner, the field was covered in vines.

“My Field Spell allows me to activate an Easter Egg out of my deck, so I choose Easter Egg 8.” A green and blue egg with a pink 8 appeared. “Now I will use it to destroy your middle face-down.”

“I'll activate it in response, Ivy Shackles.” The card appeared.

“So? It still gets destroyed.” Ivy shackles shattered and the Easter Egg turned gray.

“That is true, but since it was face-up when it was destroyed, I can draw a card.” Akiza drew.

“Fine. I activate the Easter Egg 7 from my hand, and I'll use its effect to destroy your Violet Witch.” A green and blue egg with a pink 7 appeared.

“I tribute my Violet Witch to activate my Bamboo Scrap, but now I chain Rose Flame.” Violet witch disappeared in vines and rose flame appeared face-up on the field. “Now I special summon 2 Plant Tokens to your field.” 2 shrubs appeared on Kim’s side of the field (DEF 500). “And now that a monster was summoned to your field, their ATKs are halved” vines wrapped around them (ATK 400) “and I get a Rose Token.” A black rose appeared on Akiza’s side of the field (ATK 800). “Also, since those Plant Tokens are Plants, because of Rose Flame, you take 500 points of damage.” Flames shot out of the card at Kim (Kim 7500). The Easter Egg with the 7 turned gray.

“That trap's effect didn't really hurt.”

“I've learned to control my powers, so my cards don't hurt any more than holograms. Continue with your turn please.”

“Okay then. I activate my Easter Egg 3 and I'll use its effect to draw a card.” An Easter Egg with a pink 3 appeared and turned gray as Kim drew. “Now I activate my Easter Egg 2 and I activate its effect: you lose 500 Life Points.” Another Easter Egg, this one with a pink 2, appeared and turned gray as Akiza lost Life Points (Akiza 7500). I summon Dragon of the Many Eggs.” A medium-sized green dragon with blue stripes, blue wings, and big pink claws appeared (ATK 2100).

“ Black Garden, do your thing.” Vines wrapped around the dragon (ATK 1050). A Rose Token is now summoned to my field.” A black rose appeared on the Black Rose’s field (ATK 800).

“Now I'll attack your Rose Token with my Dragon.” Kim’s dragon, bound by vines, slowly walked over to the rose and slashed at it (Akiza 7250). “I remove Easter Egg 2 from play using my Scavenger Hunt and I'll end my turn.” The egg with the pink 2 disapeared.

“It's my turn then. I draw.” Akiza drew a card. “I activate Seed of Deception, so I can Special Summon my Phoenixian Seed.” Phoenixian Seed appeared (DEF 0). “Now my Black Garden will halve my Seed's ATK”, vines wrapped around Phoenixian Seed (ATK 400), “and give you a Rose Token.” A black rose joined Kim’s side (ATK 800). “Which means you take 500 damage.” Flames shot out of the Rose Flame card (Kim 7000). “Now I tribute my Rose Token in order to summon Rose Tentacles.” Rose Tentacles appeared (ATK 2200). Vines wrapped around it. “Once again, my monster's ATK is halved (ATK 1100) and you get another Rose Token.” Another rose joined Kim’s side (ATK 800). “Which means Rose Flame will inflict another 500 damage to you.” Flames shot out of the Rose Flame card (Kim 6500). “Now I equip my Rose Tentacles with Thorn of Malice, which means it gains 600 ATK. However, my Black Garden halves the total ATK of monsters, so my Rose Tentacles really only gains 300 ATK.” Bigger thorns appeared on Rose Tentacles’ tentacles (ATK 1400). “Now my Rose Tentacles can attack once more for every Plant monster you control. I count 4, so my Rose Tentacles can attack 5 times. I'll attack your Plant Token.” One tentacle attacked the shrub (DEF 500). “Since my Rose Tentacles is equipped with Thorn of Malice, the Plant Token isn't destroyed in battle, but I get to deal Piercing Damage.” The tentacle then continued moving toward Kim (Kim 5600). “Now the Plant Token loses 600 ATK and DEF (ATK 100, DEF 0).” The shrub got a crack in its leaf. “Now I'll attack it again.” Another tentacle attacked the shrub and then Kim. The crack went all the way through the shrub (Kim 4200, Plant Token ATK and DEF 0). “I'll attack it again.” Another tentacle attacked (Kim 2800). “Now I'll attack it again.” Yet another tentacle (Kim 1400). “Now I'll use the final attack on that Plant Token.” Another one of the Rose Tentacles’ tentacles attacked (Kim 0).

“The winner is Akiza,” said Chancellor Sludge. “She pulled off an amazing 3 turn win against our Level 3 duelist.”

“Excellent duel Akiza. I feel honored to have dueled a expert like you.”

“Thank you Kim.” Akiza seemed worried.

“What's wrong Akiza?”

“While I was changing into this outfit, my mark started to glow. I knew Yusei was dueling somewhere, but he must have been facing a shadow duelist. There are so many of them it seems. My mark disappeared before I went on stage, but I still don't know if Yusei won or not. I hope he's okay.” Then Yusei walked onto the stage. The audience cheered. Yusei put his hand on Akiza's shoulder. Akiza turned around. “Yusei. You don’t know how happy I am to see you.”

“So how did your duel go?”

“It went good. My powers didn't hurt anybody even though I didn't have the power restrainer on.”

“That's incredible. That means you are completely in control of your powers.” He then remembered that there was an audience and turned towards them. “I'm sure everyone here knows me, but in case you don't, I'm Yusei Fudo. I would love to stay and chat, but Crow and Jack want to meet up with me, Akiza, and Luna.” He turned towards Akiza. “We should probably go Akiza.”

“Okay Yusei, but first, can you show these students your Synchro Warriors and Stardust Dragon?”

“Of course I can, Akiza.” He placed Junk Warrior, Turbo Warrior, Nitro Warrior, Road Warrior, and Stardust Dragon on his monster card zones. Huge holograms of each monster appeared in front of Yusei. Everyone just looked up at the monsters. “Akiza, did you want to say anything to the students before we leave?”

“Yes I did. Students, be sure to always try your best at everything. I wanted to say something else, but I don't remember what it was. Anyway, don't get discouraged if you are at a low rank. Now I have to leave.” Akiza and Yusei left the building. Kim got off the duel arena. Chancellor Sludge walked onto the duel arena. “That duel was a bit shorter than expected. Anyway, this Duel Arena will be open if anybody else wants to duel. Better yet, how about somebody duels me?” There was no response in the audience. “Don’t worry; I’ll wait here in case somebody wants to challenge me.” Kim walked away and saw Heather. Heather and her 4 white-jacketed friends walked over to Kim. The boy stood behind the 4 girls.

“Hey Heather. Who are your 4 friends?”

A green haired girl with her Duel Disk on her left arm (which shows she is right-handed) grabbed Kim’s hand and started shaking it. “It’s very nice to meet you. My name is Wanda. I’m sure you must be a great duelist, but Akiza just had the hand she needed to win on the third turn.” A Petit Dragon Duel Spirit then appeared next to her. “Oh hey Petit Dragon. Isn’t he just the cutest little thing?”

“Wanda, we don’t even know if she can see spirits,” said a left-handed brown haired girl with glasses. She then looked at Kim. “My name is Audrey. Judging by how you dueled, you had a bad hand. Whether you are a good duelist remains a mystery.” An Archfiend Marmot of Nefariousness Duel Spirit then jumped out from behind Audrey and rested on Audrey’s shoulder. “Kim, if I said there was an Archfiend Marmot of Nefariousness spirit on my shoulder, would you believe it?”

“Yes I would. I can actually see it.”

“So what’s your Duel Spirit Partner?”

“I don’t have one.”

“Interesting. People who can see Duel Spirits usually have one.”

“Anyway,” said a blue haired girl. “My name is Erika. I can’t believe you challenged Akiza. You’re so brave. I wish I could be brave like you. That duel didn’t go so hot for you, but you’re probably better than me, despite me being level 4.” A Gigobyte spirit appeared next to her. “Oh hey Gigobyte. I guess we both need to grow before we can be strong.” Kim checked the badges of all the girls: they were all Level 4.

“Now it’s time for you to meet my other friend.” She moved out of the way. “Also, Kim, that duel only convinced me further that you are a bad duelist.” A boy with brown hair stepped out from behind the girls and walked towards Kim. His outfit was a white jacket and regular white pants. His badge was Level 4 too.

“My name is Derek. I must say that your deck didn’t look like it was too good up there. I suggest you get another deck.” A Meda Bat duel spirit then flew over his head. “Not now Meda Bat!” He focused back on Kim. His jaw then dropped. He then shook his head. “Yeah me and my friends all have Duel Spirit Partners so we all understand each other. It was nice talking to you. Ladies let’s go meet up with the other white jackets. See you later Kim,” he said very fast and he ran off with the girls. Kim then got a tap on the shoulder. She looked to see who it was.

“Hey, I noticed your black coat and thought, hey, she’s a member of the Wicked Warlocks so I should go say hi,” said a boy in a black uniform.

“I’m actually not a member of the Wicked Warlocks, but it was nice of you to say hi.”

“You’re not a member? Then why don’t you become one?”

“No I’m alright. Thank you for the offer though.”

“How about we duel behind the school? If I win, you become a member.”

“Sure. When should we have this duel?”

“Well I’ll be waiting outside in a few minutes. Try to find some of the other black jackets around here.” He left the party. Kim looked everywhere for other people with black jackets, but couldn’t find anybody. Kim tried talking to many of the people, but they would just turn and walk away. Kim then decided to leave the party. She walked behind the school. There she saw a huge gang of people in black cloaks with blood-colored words written on the front: the Wicked Warlocks. They all also held black staffs in their hands. “Well look who showed up.” He took off his hood. It was the same boy as last time. “Kim, the only student in the school who wears the black jacket yet isn’t a member of the Wicked Warlocks. Let’s see if we can change that.”

“May I remind you that the Wicked Warlocks is an all boys group?” said the tallest figure.

“Yeah, when we were 8. Dudes, I think we’ve grown past the ‘girls are icky’ stage. Anyway, I guess we should get this duel on the road.” He jammed his staff into the ground. A seal of Darkness appeared on the ground around Kim and the Wicked Warlocks. “I should tell you that I have magical powers. This seal will stop you from running away from our duel. Also, please call me Arkana. Now let’s duel.”

Arkana readied his Duel Disk. “I’ll start this duel off. I draw.” He drew a card. “I summon Skilled Dark Magician.” Skilled Dark Magician appeared on the field (ATK 1900). “Now I activate Reasoning, so you choose a Level and I pick up cards from the top of my deck until a monster appears. If that monster is the same level as the Level you declared, all the picked up cards are sent to the graveyard; if the monster is of a different level, then the monster is summoned and all the Spells and Traps go to the Graveyard. What’s your choice?

He must have a deck based on the Dark Magician. I should try to be sure he doesn’t summon it. “I choose Level 7.”

“Wise choice.” Arkana revealed the top card of his Deck, Dark Magician Girl. “But not the right choice. Since Dark Magician Girl is a Level 6 monster, and not a level 7, she is summoned to the field.” Dark Magician Girl joined Skilled Dark Magician on Arkana’s field (ATK 2000). “Remember that, every time I activate a Spell, my Skilled Dark Magician gets a Spell Counter.” The black orb on Skilled Dark Magician’s shoulder armor started to glow. “Now I activate my Sage’s Stone, so I can summon Dark Magician from my deck.” A Dark Magician in red armor appeared (ATK 2500). “Now my Skilled Dark Magician gets another Spell Counter.” The black orb on his other shoulder armor started to glow. “Now I activate Magical Blast.” The card appeared in the Spell Trap Zone. “It deals 200 damage to you for every Spellcaster I control, so that’s 600 points.” A green and purple magical power orb fired out of the card and exploded on Kim (Kim 7400). The black orb on Skilled Dark Magician’s staff started to glow. “Now by Tributing my Skilled Dark Magician on the field, I can summon another Dark Magician.” A curtain of yellow light surrounded Skilled Dark Magician. When the light disappeared, there was another red Dark Magician on the field. “I set 2 cards and end my turn.” A face-down card appeared on the field.

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Kim drew her card. “I activate Cross of the Dimensions, so now we each activate a Field Spell and, for the rest of the duel, those Field Spells cannot be removed from the field. However, if you cannot play a Field Spell, you take 1000 damage. I activate my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt!” A forest appeared around them. A pink banner tied to 2 trees has “Scavenger Hunt” written on it.

“I cannot activate any Field Spells though, so I must draw 4 cards and take 1000 damage.” A pink aura surrounded him as he took 1000 damage (Arkana 7000). He drew 4 cards.

“Now I summon Dragon of the Many Eggs.” A medium-sized green dragon with blue stripes, blue wings, and big pink claws appeared (ATK 2100). “Now I’ll have it destroy your dark Magician Girl.” The dragon flew over to Dark Magician Girl and slashed at her (Arkana 6900). “Now I activate Easter Egg 7 from my deck by the effect of my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” A big green and blue striped egg with a pink 7 in the front appeared. “Now I activate its special ability, so your Dark Magician is destroyed.” One of the Dark Magicians disappeared and the Easter Egg turned gray. “Now I activate Miraculous Egg Emergence, so I send my Easter Egg 7 to the Graveyard and I get 5 more Easter eggs from my deck.” Her Easter Egg 7 was replaced by 5 other eggs of similar design, except each had a different number: 1, 2, 6, 8, and 10. “Now I activate my Easter egg 1’s special ability, so I gain 500 life points” (Kim 7900). The egg with the 1 on it turned gray. “Now I remove it from play thanks to Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt’s ability. Now I activate Egg Draw, so I draw a card for every ‘Egg’ Continuous Spell I control, so I draw 4 cards. Now I activate Easter Egg 6’s effect, so I discard 2 cards to gain 1500 Life Points.” A white aura surrounded Kim.

“I was hoping you’d do that. I activate Bad Reaction to Simochi.” The Continuous Trap appeared. “While this card is in play, you lose Life Points instead of gaining them.” The white aura turned black and dealt damage to Kim (Kim 6400). The Easter Egg 6 turned gray.

“In that case, I’ll use Easter Egg 8’s effect to destroy Bad Reaction to Simochi.” Bad Reaction to Simochi shattered and Easter Egg 8 turned gray. “I’ll activate Easter Egg 2’s effect, so you lose 500 Life Points.” A pink aura surrounded Arkana (Arkana 6400). Easter Egg 2 turned gray. Now I activate the effect of Easter Egg 10, so I summon a Level 3 or higher monster from my hand, and you special summon one that is two levels lower from your deck, so I choose Easter Bunny.” A small green and blue rabbit appeared on the field with its head down towards the ground (DEF 550). “So you can summon a Level 1 monster from your Deck.”

“If I must, I’ll summon Mystic Lamp.” Mystic lamp appeared on the field (ATK 400). Easter Egg 9 turned gray.

“I’ll activate my Easter Bunny’s effect, so the Easter Egg 7 in my Graveyard goes to the bottom of my deck. Then I’ll set a card and end my turn.” Kim’s Easter eggs disappeared. “I forgot to mention that my egg cards are now removed from play and are treated as being removed from play by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt. It’s your move, Arkana.”

“Good, because I’m about to finish you off. I activate the effect of Magical Blast in my Graveyard, so it returns to my hand instead of me drawing. Now I activate my face-down Birthright, so I can summon back my Dark Magician.” The red Dark Magician appeared from the Graveyard. “Now I activate Ancient Rules, so I can Special Summon the Dark Magician in my hand.” Another red Dark Magician appeared.

“Three Dark Magicians!?”

“That’s right. Now I activate my ace card, Delta Attacker, so all my Dark Magicians can attack you directly this turn.” The three Dark Magicians started floating and created a triangle formation. “Now Dark Magicians, attack her directly!” The Dark Magicians used their Dark Magic Attacks in perfect unison, creating a giant orb of black magic aimed directly at Kim. It exploded on Kim (Kim 1400). “Wait a minute, you only took 5000 damage, but you were supposed to take 7500 damage. How did you stop 2500 damage?” A face-down card was revealed: Defense Draw.

“I used this to stop the battle damage from one of the attacks and draw a card.” Defense Draw disappeared.

“I still can attack you with my Lamp.” It released a fog that moved past all of Kim’s monsters. The fog enveloped Kim and took away 400 Life Points (Kim 1000). “Now I activate the Magical Blast I added to my hand earlier.” The card appeared and released a purple blast. It exploded on Kim (Kim 200). “So you survived this turn, but next turn will be your last. Then you’ll be one of us. I end my turn.”

I can’t give up. I know I can win this duel. “It’s my turn. I draw.” Kim looked at her hand.

“Didn’t get the card you needed? Oh well, looks like you’ll have to join us. Don’t worry, we aren’t bad people just because we’re the wicked warlocks. In fact, we’re more than happy to let a girl in.” He turned towards the other members. “Right?”

“Yeah, totally dude,” said the tallest one.

“I thank you for the offer, but I won’t have to join the Wicked warlocks. Here’s why: since I have 5 Easter Eggs removed from play by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt, I can summon my Easter Knight.” A woman dressed in green and blue armor with a green and blue sword appeared (ATK 2400).

“What do you expect to do with her? She doesn’t match the power of my Dark Magicians.”

“I activate the equip spell Easter Egg Scepter, which gives her a 1000 ATK boost.” A green and blue scepter with an Egg-shaped tip appeared in Easter Knight’s right hand (ATK 3400). “Now I activate Easter Egg 7 from my deck.” The green and blue egg with a 7 on the front appeared again. “I’ll use its effect to destroy your Dark Magician.” One of the Dark Magicians disappeared while Easter egg 7 turned gray. “Now I’ll remove it from play using my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt. I’ll now use my Easter Egg Scepter’s effect to activate the effect of my Easter Egg 1.” A “1” appeared on the Egg-shaped tip and it released a white veil onto Kim (Kim 700). “Now I’ll attack your Mystic Lamp with my Easter Knight.” It released a powerful green magical blast on the Lamp. The Lamp was completely destroyed (Arkana 3400). “I set a card and end my turn.”

“So you were able to hold off my Magical Blast for now, but I don’t need to win. I’ll decide to draw this turn. I summon Breaker the Magical Warrior.” Breaker the Magical Warrior appeared. The crystal on his sword was glowing (ATK 1600). “When it is Normal Summoned, it gains a Spell Counter. Now I’ll activate my Breaker’s special ability: by removing its Spell Counter, I can destroy one Spell or Trap card on the field, so I’ll choose your Easter Egg Scepter.” Breaker’s sword released a magical slash that went straight for the scepter.

“I activate my Egg Barrier, so my barrier gets an Egg Counter for every Easter egg I have removed from play.” A wall with 6 eggs appeared. The scepter was still hit by the magical slash (Easter knight’s ATK 2400). “Now it’s time for my Scepter’s trick: it sends all my Easter Eggs back to the Graveyard and deals damage to you equal to the number of eggs sent that way times 500.” The scepter released one last blast at Arkana before crumbling away (Arkana 400).

“Time for me to end this. Dark Magician, finish off the Easter Knight.” Dark Magician used its Dark Magic Attack, but it was blocked by an egg.

“Guess again. My Egg Barrier can negate an attack by removing an Egg Counter from it.”

“Fine. I’ll attack your Easter Bunny with my Breaker.” Another egg broke. “I set a card and end my turn.”

“It’s my turn then. I draw.” Why does he look so confident? “I activate Easter Egg 5 from my deck. But I’m only using it for the effect of my Easter Egg Flash spell card, so I remove my Egg from play to destroy your face-down Spell or Trap.” The destroyed card was Magic Cylinder.

“My only defense is gone!”

“Now, Easter Knight, destroy Breaker.” Easter Knight took out a sword and slashed Breaker in half (Arkana 0).

The seal around Kim and the Wicked Warlocks disappeared. “You won this duel, Kim, so you do not join the Wicked Warlocks,” said Arkana.

“That’s a relief!” said one of the other members of the Wicked Warlocks as he walked over towards Arkana.

“Just shut up, Eyepatch,” replied Arkana.

“Stop calling me Eyepatch.” He turned his head towards Kim. He had an eye patch on his right eye and a very angry look in his left eye. “Anyway, Arkana, you lost our bet. Hand over that Delta Attacker card.”

“Fine.” Arkana handed the boy with the eye patch the card. “It’s not like you can use it effectively in your deck though.” Arkana picked up his staff. “Kim, is your room nearby? If it isn’t, we can lead you to the female dorm gate.”

“Don’t worry Arkana, I’ll be fine. Thank you for your offer though.” Kim walked to her room. He then walked into the room. Nobody was there yet. How long is that newcomers party? Just then, Heather walked in and walked to her side of the room.

“Kim, why did you leave the party early?”

“I just got bored, that’s all.”

“You left at a similar time as the Wicked Warlocks members. That must mean you are a member too.”

“No, I’m not. In fact, I just had a duel against one off the members. The stakes were that, if I lost, I would join the Wicked Warlocks and, if I won, I wouldn’t.”

“Oh. So you lost?”

Kim started to get angry. “Why did you always doubt my dueling abilities? I won that duel against Arkana, so I didn’t join.”

“Kim, just face it: you only won that duel against Hunter by luck. Probably no other card in your deck could have saved you, so that was just pure luck. You can’t win many duels if you only have luck by your side. Nobody is that lucky all the time. You have to have skill too, something you obviously severely lack.”

“Look, Heather, the only thing you’ve been doing is saying how bad of a duelist, but not how good of a duelist you are. So how about we resolve this with a duel?”

“No way, I’d win easily.”

“Is that what you really believe? Or are you just scared?”

“Trust me, I would win easily, especially if I used my real deck rather than my Ethical Enchantress deck. Now let’s just go to sleep, tomorrow starts a big day of classes.” Heather then got into her bed. Kim decided to get into her bed and she immediately fell asleep.
Kim woke up to the sun shining through the window. She looked up at a clock hat was hanging up on the wall. 8:00. I’m so glad classes aren’t until 9. It’s nice waking up by the sun’s light, without the aid of an alarm clock. She got up from her bed. She saw Heather still sleeping. I guess Heather isn’t a morning person. Kim took her next set of clothes out of the uniform box and went into the bathroom to take a shower. When Kim left the bathroom a few minutes later, Heather was just getting up. She still looked tired.

“Why did you have to wake me up so early, Kim?”

“How did I wake you up?”

“That shower woke me up. Why couldn’t you have taken your shower later?”

“You’re angry because I wanted to start preparing for the day? You said it yourself, today’s a big day for us and I don’t want to be late to the first day of class. Anyway, I have to go to breakfast.” Kim then grabbed a blank notebook, a pen, her card key, her duel disk, and her cell phone and left her room. She put her cell phone and card key in her coat pocket, turned off. She ran into the school and started looking for the cafeteria. Along the way she came across a boy with very short blond hair, a black uniform, a black eye patch on his right eye, and a black necklace with a blue bead on it.

“I remember you,” said the boy. “You’re Kim, aren’t you?”

“Yes I am, and you’re that kid with the eye patch who won a bet for a Delta Attacker when Arkana lost.”

“Yeah. Anyway, would your last name happen to be Shadow?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You’re in my class then.” She then noticed the Level 3 badge on his jacket. “Come with me and I’ll lead you to the no-Tribute cafeteria.” They walked through the hallways. “You know, you’re a fool for not joining the Wicked Warlocks. The Wicked Warlocks rule the school, don’t you know that?”

“But what about the Ethical Enchanters?”

“You mean those clowns? They may duel well, but they’re not as good as us. You were a fool to not join us.” He then mumbled “Yet I’m relieved you didn’t.”

“Oh? And why is that? Because I beat the leader of the Wicked Warlocks?”

“Arkana isn’t the leader. The tallest kid is the leader. He is a senior year Level 6 duelist whose name and deck I must keep secret from everyone who isn’t a member of the Wicked Warlocks. Unlike the rest of us, he doesn’t wear a black jacket.”

“So why didn’t you want me in the Wicked Warlocks?”

“Like I’m gonna tell you!” They walked into the cafeteria. “Let’s go talk to Chancellor Sludge. He has something to say to our class.” They walked over to Chancellor Sludge. “Hey Chancellor. You said that you needed to tell Kim something important?”

“Oh, yes I did," said the Chancellor. "Thank you for leading Miss Shadow to me. Now go get your breakfast Mike. Miss Shadow, sit down.” Kim sat down.

“What do you have to tell me, Chancellor?” And why does that kid Mike seem to hate me?

“To make this quick, I know pretty much everything about your past. Everything was recorded in some way or another, and it’s all been gathered into one big past performance record, kind of like a permanent record. I am not particularly proud at your past and you shouldn’t be either. I however, believe in second chances, so if you are willing to try to be a good girl, I will not let the other faculty members see this. However, if you are a bad girl, I will let the faculty see this record. Not just that, but if you try to transfer, no matter where you go, this record will follow you. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir.”

“Good. Also, I wanted to mention that your teacher will be out for some time because of a tragic accident, so I will teach your class. Don’t worry, I won’t hold this record against you at all; I believe that you must have gotten more mature and that you have grown past all your childish mischief. I hope you will prove me right. Now go get your breakfast.”

“Okay. Thank you sir.” Kim got up from her chair and waited in line for her breakfast. The line seemed to take forever to move. She looked at the food they were serving. It looked like a soup made with anything found in the kitchen. Was there a fish eye in there? She finally got her bowl of soup and a spoon.

“Sorry for the bad food today. We haven’t gotten in our food shipment yet, so this is the best we could do,” said a very young lunch lady with long, red hair. “I promise we’ll have better and more nutritious food tomorrow.” She then saw Kim with her head down. “Don’t worry, I know it looks gross, but it tastes alright.” Kim looked up at the lunch lady again. “So what’s your name, Level 3 duelist?”

“Kim Shadow.”

“Well Kim, you dueled well against Hunter and you fought valiantly against Akiza. Anyway, you should eat your breakfast soup before it gets cold.”

“Yeah.” Kim walked to the table with Mike, hoping to get an answer to her question. She sat down across from Mike. He turned his head to the left, and then he turned his head to the right. He had his left eye closed. “Mike, will you please tell me why you don’t want me in the Wicked Warlocks?”

“Why should I?”

“It just seems like you hate me, but I really didn’t do anything yet. I just want to know why you hate me.”

“It isn’t anything against you specifically.”

“Is it that you don’t want me in the Wicked Warlocks because I’m a girl and you want the Wicked Warlocks to stay an all boys club?”

“That’s an excellent point. I mean yes. Arkana didn’t let girls into the Wicked Warlocks before Duel Academy, but now he does. I think he only wants girls in the club is so he could find one he likes and date her.”

“That’s a selfish thing to do.”

“Yeah, he claims it would help all of us to add girls to the club, but he only wants to help himself. He’s such a jerk sometimes. Even though all of us wicked Warlocks are supposed to be equal under our leader, he always seems to be second in command.” He looked up towards Kim.

“Well it’s good to know that you don’t have anything against me. Also, I’m just wondering why you have an eye patch in the first place.”

“That is a story that will take way too long to explain. By the way, we only have a few minutes to eat.” Kim decided to drink her soup. She came across a few solid parts in the soup, but she didn’t really care that much. After finishing their soup, Mike and Kim then went to their classroom. Kim found the seat that was marked Kim Shadow and sat in it. Mike found his seat. Many other students then came into the class and found their seats. Chancellor Sludge walked in.

“Hello everybody. In case you don’t remember me, I am Chancellor Sludge. Your regular teacher had a tragic accident and won’t be in for a while. Now all you students have one thing in common: you are all first-year Level 3 students. Anyway, I suppose first we should do introductions, but I have a better idea: each person finds somebody to duel. I’m sure that would be more pleasing to you than introductions. Everybody partner up.” Everybody suddenly stood up and looked for somebody to duel. There were people of many different color jackets. He saw Mike already found somebody to duel. So did everybody except for Kim. Kim went to the Chancellor. “Let me guess, you couldn’t find anybody to duel? I knew this problem would arise because there is an odd number of students in this class.” He then turned toward the students. “Hold your horses. This place is too crowded for all of you to duel at once. Everybody follow me.” He led everybody out of a door and into a large field with a large wall surrounding it. “We’ll duel in this field. Everybody scatter for your duels.” Everybody scattered to different parts of the field except the Chancellor and Kim.

“What about me? Who will I duel?” She then saw the Chancellor putting his deck into the duel disk on his arm.

“It’s been a while since I dueled a student. You ready to duel?”

“Bring it on!” said Kim as her duel disk activated.

“I suppose I’ll start first,” said Chancellor Sludge. “I draw.” He drew a card. “I summon Mire Sludge.” A big brown pile of sludge with a face appeared. “He now has 4 Sludge Counters and he gains 500 ATK for each one, so he has 2000 ATK. Now I activate Sludge Lair and Split Field.” The place around them transformed into a sewer filled with sludge. “My Split Field is a Continuous Spell that allows for there to be 2 Field Spells on the field at a time. This card also protects my Field Spell, kind of like Field Barrier. Now I use my Sludge Lair’s effect to add a Sludge Counter to my Mire Sludge.” Some sludge landed on the brown pile of sludge, making it bigger (SC5). “Anyway, I set a card and end my turn.”

“It’s my move then,” said Kim. “I draw.” She drew a card. “I activate my Field Spell Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” A line that separated the two duelists appeared and Kim’s half of the field changed to a forest. A banner with the words “Scavenger Hunt” appeared between two trees. “Now during each of my urns I can activate 1 Easter Egg from my deck and any number from my hand, so I’ll choose to activate Easter Egg 7 from my deck.” A blue and green egg with a pink 7 appeared. “I’ll use its effect to destroy your Mire Sludge.” The brown sludge exploded and the egg turned gray. A piece of sludge then landed on the sewer scenery.

“You’ve just activated my Sludge Lair’s special ability: since you destroyed a ‘Sludge’ monster, my Lair gets a Sludge Counter (SC1).”

“That’s all right. Now I activate Easter Eggs 1, 2, and 9 from my hand.” 3 green and blue eggs with different pink numbers appeared: one had a 1, another 2, and the third 9. “Now I activate their effects, so first I’ll activate 1: I gain 500 Life Points.” A white aura appeared around Kim as she gained 500 Life Points (Kim 8500). The egg with the pink 1 turned gray. “Now I’ll activate Easter Egg 2, so you lose 500 Life Points.” A dark aura surrounded Chancellor Sludge as he lost 500 Life Points (Chancellor 7500). The egg with the 2 turned gray. “Now I’ll activate Easter Egg 9, which transfers 250 of your Life Points.” A white aura surrounded Kim and a dark aura surrounded the Chancellor as 250 of his Life Points went to Kim (Kim 8750, Chancellor 7250). The egg with the 9 turned gray. “Now I summon Easter Egg Scouter.” A man with an egg-shaped head and a pink bandanna appeared (ATK 1600). “With his effect, I can add an ‘Easter Egg’ Continuous Spell from my deck to my hand. I choose to add Easter Egg 5 to my hand. Now I activate it.” An egg similarly colored to the other eggs except with a pink 5 appeared. “Now I activate its effect: I pay 1500 life Points to draw 2 cards (Kim 7250). Now I remove Easter egg 1 from play using my Easter egg Scavenger Hunt’s ability.” The egg with the 1 disappeared. “Now I activate Egg Draw, so I draw 4 cards, one for each Easter egg I control.” Kim drew 4 cards. “Now I activate Mysterious Disappearance of the Eggs 2, so all the ‘Egg’ Continuous Spells I control are removed from play, and they are counted as being removed from play by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” The four eggs disappeared. “Now I special summon Easter Knight. She can be Special Summoned if 5 of my eggs are removed from play by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” A woman dressed in green and blue armor with a green and blue sword appeared (ATK 2400).

“That must be your ace card.”

“Yes, and it will tear away many of your Life Points. Now I activate Easter Egg Scepter, which will give my Easter Knight a power boost.” A green and blue scepter with an Egg-shaped tip appeared in Easter Knight’s right hand (ATK 3400). “Now I use the effect of my Easter Egg Scepter, so I can activate the effect of the Easter Egg 2 I have removed from play, so you lose 500 Life Points.” A “2” appeared on the egg-shaped tip of the Scepter and it released a black veil. The veil covered the Chancellor as he lost life points
(Chancellor 6750). “Don’t think I forgot to attack. I’ll attack with both my monsters.” The man grew claws and slashed at the Chancellor (Chancellor 5150) and the scepter released a huge magical blast at the Chancellor (Chancellor 1750). “I’ll set a card and end my turn.”

“You duel quite well Kim. I’m quite impressed. Anyway, I draw.” He drew a card. “Perfect! I set 2 cards and I activate Giant Trunade. Now I activate the first face-down I set, Anti-Trunade. Anti-Trunade will protect my Spells and Traps from being returned to my hand while yours still do. For each card not returned to my hand this way, I draw a card.” A storm blew Kim’s Spells and Traps right off the field. “Since your Scepter didn’t go to the Graveyard, its effect won’t cause me to lose any life Points. Anyway, since my Split Field, my Sludge Lair, and neither of my 2 face-downs returned to my hand, I draw 4 cards.” He drew 4 cards. “These are just the cards I needed. Now I activate another face-down Spell, Find the King, so I discard a ‘Sludge’ monster to add Sludge King from my deck to my hand and add a Sludge Counter to my Sludge Lair (SC2).” Another piece of sludge landed in the sewer that was the Chancellor’s field. “Now I activate my other face-down, Recurring Nightmare, so I add both my Mire Sludge cards to my hand. Now I activate Sludge Dump, so I discard any number of Sludge monsters in my hand and my Sludge Lair gets a number of counters equal to the total Levels of those monsters. I discard my 3 Mire Sludge cards to add 12 Sludge Counters to my Sludge Lair.” 12 more small piles of sludge appeared in the sewer (SC14). “Now I send my Sludge Lair to the Graveyard to summon my best monster, Sludge King!” The scenery on the Chancellor’s field disappeared and a humongous pile of red sludge with a crown and a face appeared. “He gains all the Sludge Counters that were on the Sludge Lair, and that was 14, and he has 500 ATK for each Sludge Counter on him, so he has a total of 7000 ATK. Now I activate my Spell card King’s Generosity. In exchange for any even number of Sludge Counters from my King, I draw half as many cards, so I remove 6 Sludge Counters to draw 3 cards.” The pile of red sludge shrunk (ATK 4000) as the Chancellor drew 3 cards. “Now I activate my next card, Sludge Hammer, so I can remove any number of Sludge counters from cards I control and then destroy any number of monsters, just as long as the combined ATK of those monsters are equal to or less than he number of Sludge Counters I remove from my cards times 750. I remove 6 from my King in order to take out up to 4500 ATK worth of monsters. That means I can destroy both of your monsters Kim.” A giant hammer made of sludge was removed from the crowned sludge, which made it even smaller (ATK 1000). The Sludge Hammer smashed onto the field, separating into two piles: one that covered the man with the bandanna, and one that covered the woman in armor. Both piles exploded. “Now I activate my Sludge replacement spell. Since 12 counters have been removed from my king, he gets them all back.” The crowned sludge grew back to his original size (ATK 7000). “Now I summon my Activated Sludge.” A pile of green sludge appeared (ATK 0). “Now I activate my King’s special ability: I can sacrifice one other ‘Sludge’ monster I control and add its counters to my Sludge King, and since my Activated Sludge has 3 sludge Counters, my Sludge King rises to 17 Sludge Counters.” The smaller sludge pile combined his sludge into the crowned sludge. The crowned sludge grew a bit bigger (ATK 8500). “Now I’ll have my Sludge King attack you directly. This is the end!” The Sludge King slowly slithered over to Kim. When it finally reached Kim, it grew a giant hand and slapped Kim (Kim 250).

“Wait, that attack was supposed to be lethal. Instead, you’re left with 250. How did you gain 1500 Life points?”

“Maybe you should look at your Life point counter too.” The Chancellor looked at his Life Point counter. It said 750.

“What did you do?”

“When you activated Giant Trunade, I activated my face-down, Scepter Insurance. Since an ‘Egg Scepter’ I controlled was removed from the field but wasn’t sent to the Graveyard, this handy little card let me return all the Easter Eggs I had removed from play to the graveyard, and then half of them rounded up each recovered 500 Life Points, while the other half each reduced your Life points by 500. Since I had 5, I gained 1500 life points and you lost 1000, so I’m still in this game.”

“Well done. I end my turn.”

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Kim drew. “I once again activate Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” The whole field turned into a forest. A banner with the words “Scavenger Hunt” on it hung from two trees. With this I can bring out Easter Egg 7.” A green and blue egg with a pink 7 appeared. “Now I activate my Egg’s ability: it destroys your monster.” The crowned sludge exploded as the egg turned gray.

“Well done. You’ve destroyed my ace monster, my trump card.”

“Thanks. Now I activate Monster Reborn to bring back my ace monster, Easter Knight.” Once again, the woman in green and blue armor appeared with a green and blue sword appeared. “Once again, I activate my Scepter.” The green and blue scepter with an Egg-shaped tip appeared in Easter Knight’s right hand (ATK 3400). “Easter Knight, finish this! Easter Spell Blast Attack!” As the Easter Knight held the egg-shaped tip of the scepter towards the Chancellor, the scepter released a huge magical blast at the Chancellor (Chancellor 0).

“You did a fine job, Kim,” said the Chancellor. “I’ve never seen Easter Egg cards before besides your duel against Akiza. In fact,” he turned towards the other students, many of which were still dueling, “I haven’t seen many of the types of decks that these students are using. But, by analyzing your Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt, I can deduce that your deck has a toolbox strategy. I bet I could figure out all these strategies if I watched them. In fact, I think I’ll do that. If you want, Kim, I’ll let you go inside again and wait for the rest of the class to come in.”

“Thank you Chancellor.” The Chancellor walked with Kim to the door which they came out of and opened the door. Kim walked inside while the Chancellor walked to a place where he could carefully see all the duels. Kim then walked to her desk. He pulled back her chair and saw a note. She unfolded the paper. There were a bunch of strange symbols on the paper. Somebody obviously wants to tell me something, but I have no clue what. I wonder if anybody I know would know what this says. Kim then placed this note in the pocket in her coat and waited for everybody else to come back. Soon everybody came back and sat in their seats. The Chancellor then walked around the classroom.

“All right then. It looks like everybody is all right with the rules of the game and everything like that. I saw some pretty strange cards out there, but I eventually figured out the strategies behind them. Anyway, I suppose we could get to the introductions.”

“Chancellor sir, I thought you said that we weren’t going to do introductions,” said a boy with brown hair in the back. He wore a white coat.

“Yeah, well, I didn’t really plan to teach anything on the first day, mainly because all of you know the basic rules and everything like that, so I need something to pass the time. I suppose I could just let you talk quietly for the rest of the school day. Just remember that other people are teaching, so be quiet.” Everybody then got out of their seats and moved to other seats. Kim then moved to where Mike was.

“Mike, I need to ask you something.” He turned to the left as she took out the paper with the strange symbols. She then looked up and saw that he was giving her the cold eye patch. “Mike, why do you hate me so much that you aren’t even going to help me?” Mike then turned to look at the paper.

“Sorry, but I don’t know what this says. I really doubt anyone in the Wicked Warlocks would know either, so don’t even bother asking. Maybe Audrey would know. After all, she seems to know a lot of trivial stuff. Maybe even Heather would know.”

“All right. Thank you Mike.” Kim waited for the end of class, and then went to her dorm room. Heather was sitting on her bed. “Heather, would you know anything about this language?” Kim showed Heather the note.

“This is definitely a Duel Spirit language. What do you make of it, Fox Fire?” Fox Fire appeared and let out a small growl. “Apparently, a long time ago, there was a Duel Spirit war that created a different language for each type and a different style for each Attribute, even though all Duel Spirits speak the same language. Eventually the written languages became further divided based on where a Duel Spirit lived: land, water, or air. Then eventually each Archetype made its own language. Fox Fire says that this is definitely a language of the land, but that isn’t saying much.”

“Are you saying a Duel Spirit is trying to talk to me?”

“That about sums it up. Anyway, I suggest showing this to my friends, who should be here in 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… 0.... Wait, where are th-” All of a sudden, Audrey, Erika, Wanda, and Derek all walked in the room.

“Sorry for being late by a few seconds,” said Audrey. Kim showed her the note. “What is this? This is a Duel Spirit language written in EARTH-style, isn’t that right, Marmot?” Archfiend Marmot of Nefariousness appeared on her shoulder and nodded. “Yes, and it looks like it’s closely related to the Beast language, but not quite. Beast-Warrior, maybe? Maybe you should ask Daniel Phantom. He has brown hair, white coat, Level 3, and likes to hang out in the giant grassy field. Maybe you should see him.”

“Thank you Audrey.” Kim ran to the field and saw a boy, just as Audrey had described, sitting on the field. Kim walked over to him, tapped his shoulder, and showed him the note.

“No, I’m not going to have my Duel Spirits translate this for you, black coat,” he said as he looked at the note and at Kim.

“I’m not part of the Wicked Warlocks, if that’s what you’re thinking!”

“So? What’s your point?”

“Don’t just judge me based on the color of my coat. Listen, how about we duel? If I win, you have your Spirits translate the note for me.”

“Fine, but what happens if I win?”

“I don’t know; what do you want?”

“Your rarest card.”

“Fine then. It’s time to duel.”

Daniel already had his Duel Disk ready. “I’ll start things off. I draw.” He drew a card. “I set a monster and a card face-down and I’ll end my turn.”

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. “I activate my Field Spell Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” A forest appeared. A banner hung between two trees had the words Scavenger Hunt written on it. “Now I activate my Easter Egg 7 from my deck.” A green and blue egg with a pink 7 on it appeared. “I’ll activate its ability: it destroys a monster on the field.” The face-down monster card shattered and the egg with the 7 turned gray. “I’m not done yet. I activate Easter Egg 10 from my hand.” A green and blue egg with a pink 10 appeared. “I’ll use its effect, so I special summon a monster from my hand and you summon one that is two Levels lower from your deck. I choose to summon Dragon of the Many Eggs.” A green and blue dragon with pink claws appeared (ATK 2100). “So now you can Special Summon a Level 2 monster from your Deck.”

“Thank you. I summon Phantom Beast Mini-Berfomet.” A small version of Berfomet appeared (DEF 1500, Tuner). The egg with the 10 on it turned gray.

“I’ll Normal Summon my Egg Treasurer.” A small blue dragon walking on all fours with green eyes and black claws appeared (ATK 1500). “He has a special gift: he can remove one of my Easter Eggs from play and treat it as being removed by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt. I’ll have him remove by Easter Egg 10 while my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt will remove Easter Egg 7.” Both the eggs disappeared. “Now I’ll have my Dragon of the Many Eggs attack your mini-Berfomet.” The dragon quickly slashed at the small Berfomet.

“Well did you know that, when my Phantom Beast is destroyed, I can summon the real Berfomet from my hand?” Berfomet appeared on the field crouched down (DEF 1800). “Not just that, but since Berfomet was summoned, I can add Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts from my deck to my hand.”

“Fine. I set a card and end my turn.”

“Good, because it’s my move. I draw.” He drew a card. “I activate Polymerization.” A swirling portal appeared. “I fuse Berfomet with Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts to summon Chimera the Flying Mythical Beast.” Chimera appeared on the field, ready to attack (ATK 2100). “Even though its life span is supposed to be 5 minutes, it’s not even going to last that long, because I’m having it attack your Dragon of the Many Eggs.” The two monsters slashed at each other and were both destroyed. “Now I activate Chimera’s ability: since my Chimera was just destroyed, I can re-summon my Gazelle.” Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts appeared again (ATK 1500). “Now I activate my face-down, Phantom Exchange Summon. I send a Phantom Beast in my hand to the Graveyard and I can Normal Summon a Phantom Beast right now. I tribute my Gazelle in order to summon Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard.” Gazelle disappeared as Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard appeared (ATK 2200).

“Wait, that monster is a Level 7 monster. You need two Tributes for that card and you only sacrificed 1: Gazelle.”

“Rock-Lizard can be summoned to the field with one Tribute just as long as that Tribute is a Phantom Beast monster, and Gazelle the King of Mythical Beasts is technically a Phantom Beast monster, so my move is legal. Also, there’s one more thing: since the monster I sent from my hand to the Graveyard was Phantom Beast Cross-Wing, my Rock-Lizard gets a 300 ATK boost.” An almost clear version of Phantom Beast Cross-Wing flew into Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard’s body, causing the Rock-Lizard to get stronger (ATK 2500). “Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard, attack the Egg Treasurer.” The Rock-Lizard punched the small dragon (Kim 6500). “Now it’s time for the next effect: since my Rock-Lizard destroyed an opponent’s monster by battle, you take 500 damage.” A rock flew out of Rock-Lizard’s arm and hit Kim in the head (Kim 6000). “I place a card face-down and end my turn.”

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. “I activate Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt’s ability, so I can activate Easter Egg 8 from my deck.” A green and blue egg with a pink 8 appeared on the field. “Now I activate its effect, so I can destroy a face-down Spell or Trap card you control. I choose your face-down card.” The card broke into pieces and the egg with the 8 turned gray. “Now I activate Easter Egg 3.” A green and blue egg with a pink 3 appeared. “Now I activate its effect, so I draw a card.” Kim drew a card as the egg turned gray. “Now I activate Easter Egg 5.” A green and blue egg with a pink 5 appeared. “I activate its ability, so I pay 1500 Life Points and draw 2 cards.” Kim drew 2 cards and the egg turned gray (Kim 4500). “Now I activate Egg Draw, so I draw a number of cards equal to the number of ‘Egg’ Continuous Spells I control, so I draw 3 cards.” Kim drew 3 cards. She smiled, as she had what she needed. “I’ll remove my Easter Egg 8 from play by the effect of my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” The Egg with the 8 disappeared. “I also activate my face-down, Preparations for Easter. I remove my last 2 Easter Eggs from play and Easter Eggs 1, 2, and 9 from my deck from play and I add Easter Knight from my deck to my hand. Easter Eggs removed this way are treated as being removed from play by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” The other Eggs disappeared. “Now, since I have 5 or more Easter Eggs removed from play, I can Special Summon Easter Knight.” A woman in green and blue armor with a green and blue sword appeared (ATK 2400). “Now I equip her with Easter Egg Scepter, which gives my Warrior a power boost.” A green and blue scepter with an egg-shaped tip appeared (ATK 3400). “Now I activate my Scepter’s effect, so I can use the effect of a monster I have removed, so I activate the effect of Easter Egg 7, so your Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard is destroyed.” A “7” appeared on the end of the Scepter and the Rock-Lizard exploded. Some of the rocks than hit Kim (Kim 2500). “What happened? Why did I take damage?”

“Thanks to my Rock-Lizard’s effect, since it was destroyed by one of your effects, you take 2000 damage.”

“You’re still wide open for a direct attack, so Easter Knight, attack!” The scepter released a powerful magical blast (Daniel 4600). “I end my turn with a card face-down.”

“It’s my move then. I draw.” He smiled. Kim knew she was in trouble. “I activate Monster reborn, which will bring back my Rock-Lizard.” Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard appeared on the field again (ATK 2200). “Don’t forget the ATK boost it gets from the Cross-Wing in my Graveyard.” The ghost of Cross-Wing flew into the Rock-Lizard (ATK 2500). “Now I activate Wild Nature’s Release and I chain my face-down Control Change, so my Wild Nature’s Release is put under your control, but I still choose the targets, which means my Rock-Lizard gains ATK equal to its DEF.” Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard grew to twice its size (ATK 4500).

“So what’s the point of changing the control of the Spell, unless-”

“Now the card that will destroy my Rock-Lizard will be your card effect, so once it does, you’ll take 2000 damage, which will be more than you can afford after this attack. Attack the Knight!” Rock-Lizard punched the woman in armor, shattering the Scepter (Kim 1400). “Don’t forget the 500 other damage.” A few rocks came flying out of its arm and hit Kim in the face (Kim 900).

“Too bad, because I also have a card effect: since my Scepter was just sent to the Graveyard, my removed Easter Eggs are all sent to the Graveyard and you take 500 points for each one.” The Scepter released one last blast before crumbling away completely (Daniel 600). “Now I activate my face-down, Mass Egg Release. I remove any number of Egg Continuous Spells from my graveyard from play and they are all treated as being removed by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt or by their own effects. This card then removes a monster from play whose Level is equal to the number of Eggs removed this way, so I remove 7 Eggs to remove Rock-Lizard from play.” 7 gray eggs, their numbers not easily visible, started circling around Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard and it disappeared.

“My combo! It failed! I end my turn.”

“Well you have no monsters to protect you. If I draw just the right monster, I can end this duel.” Kim drew her card and smiled. “I summon Easter Egg Protector.” A very small dragon with a blue body and green wings appeared (ATK 800, Tuner). “Now Easter Egg Protector, attack!” The Dragon attacked Daniel directly (Daniel 0).

“You lost, Danny Phantom. Now you must translate that note for me,” demanded Kim.

“Alright, geez, I was going to keep my word anyway. Just get me a pen and a piece of paper and I’ll get started.”

Kim was a bit angry when she heard that, but then saw a pen in his pocket. “Isn’t that a pen in your pocket? As for paper, you can use the back of the paper.”

“Fine.” He took out his pen. “Rock-Lizard, I need your help with something. Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard appeared next to him. He held up the note. “Rock-Lizard, can you translate this for,” he looks towards Kim, “this girl?” The Rock-Lizard looked at the note and disappeared.

“What happened?”

“He went to the Duel Spirit World probably to get something he needs.” Rock-Lizard then appeared with a very sharp tooth with a dripping liquid on the tip in one hand and a book in the other. He looked at the paper and roared. “Oh, so you just want to write all this stuff on the back of the paper so you can translate it side to side? Good idea.” Daniel drew a line separating two halves of the back and copied all the stuff on one side of the note to half of the other side. Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard then flipped through a few pages of his book and found what he was looking for. He then wrote each word out in the ground using his sharp tooth pen and ink. Daniel copied each of them down. He then handed the note to Kim. It read:

If you are reading this, then you have probably met and defeated Daniel Phantom. He was my right-hand pawn. Now I think it’s time that I duel you face to face. Meet me during a night when you feel you’re ready to duel me. When you visit me in the Warehouse, I’ll reveal my true identity to you, but you might want to think about who I could be before you visit me. I’ll be in the warehouse until next weekend, but only during the night. If you don’t defeat me by then, I’ll be sure to do some damage.

Who would write this? thought Kim. She looked up. Daniel was gone. Daniel was just a pawn. He was probably a Duel Spirit himself, but what was he? Anyway, I should probably settle this as soon as I can. Kim then walked to leave the field. Chancellor Sludge stopped her in her way. “Hey Chancellor. What’s wrong? Am I in trouble?”

“Of course you’re not. In fact, I wanted to give you something.” He handed her a Split Field card. “This card can help protect your Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.”

“Don’t worry, I already have Cross of the Dimensions.”

“Cross of the Dimensions does indeed give better protection to the Field, but it can only be activated if no player has a Field Spell in play, something you can’t control if you go second. Not just that, but this card only protects your Field Spell. You’ll find this Split Field card very helpful I’m sure, so take it.”

“All right. Thank you Chancellor.” Kim started to run off.

“Wait Kim,” quickly said the Chancellor. Kim froze. “For some reason, I feel that you may have an upcoming battle ahead of you with someone you were close to. It may not be soon, it may indeed be very much in the future, but anyway, don’t let that bond get in the way of your dueling. Giving it all you got is the best way to show respect to your opponent.”

“O…kay… I guess.” Kim then ran off. A battle with someone I'm close to? What is he talking about? Kim ran to her room. She saw Heather sitting there with a bowl of soup with all sorts of stuff in it. “Hey Heather, where did you get the soup?”

“They’re serving lunch in the cafeteria, you know.”

“All right then. I’m going to get some lunch.” Kim then ran off to get some lunch. Her lunch was also random stuff soup. She saw Mike, but decided it wouldn’t be a good idea to bother him. Kim just sat down at a different table and ate/drank her soup. She looked back at the table where Mike was. He was gone. She then started to walk back to her dorm room when she saw Mike again. “Hey Mike. How’s it-”. He turned his head toward her and kept walking. Then he stopped and looked at Kim’s Duel Disk. He looked puzzled. “What’s wrong?”

“I thought I saw something on your Duel Disk. Mind if I make sure nothing is wrong with it?”

“Sure, go ahead.” Kim took off her Duel Disk and gave it to Mike. He then checked all sides of it, but nothing appeared physically wrong with it.

“I didn’t find anything wrong with it or on it. It must have been the lighting in here or something that made it look strange. Anyway, here’s your Duel Disk back.” He handed back the Duel Disk and continued walking. When he was out of Kim’s view, he smiled. Heh heh, that went perfectly as planned. He then looked next to him. His Duel Spirit, Gene-Warped Warwolf. Let’s go, Gene-Warped Warwolf. Let’s see what happens next.

Kim continued walking to her dorm room. Heather’s friends were still there.

“So did you get your note translated?” asked Audrey.

“Yes I did, but-”

“You had to duel Danny in order to get him to translate it for you, right?”

“Yeah, but-”

“Yeah, Dan’s a pain like that,” replied Derek. “I remember when-”

“As much as I would like to hear your story Derek, I want to get back to what I was saying before,” interrupted Kim. “Anyway, yes I got the note translated, yes I had to duel, yes I won, but he disappeared soon after I read the note. In fact, here’s the note.” Kim handed the note to Audrey. She read it.

“Judging how well it was translated, I also must figure that this EARTH Beast-Warrior doesn’t belong to any archetype. He does, however, have some connection to Normal monsters, either he is one or he works with them. As for the actual content of the note, and what you saw, it looks like Danny Phantom wasn’t really a human, but possibly another Duel Spirit. It looks like you don’t have too long to defeat this Duel Spirit in the warehouse, so I suggest dueling it tonight. As for the place, we can bring you there.” She then took out her cell phone and looked at the time. “Actually, no I can’t, I have to talk to my roommate.”

“What a coincidence, I also have to talk to my roommate,” replied Derek.

“Me too!” yelled Wanda.

“Well, my roommate’s here. I suppose I should talk to her,” said Heather. She then hugged Derek. “See you Derek.” As Derek walked toward the door, he then got a hug from Audrey, a hug from Erika, and a hug from Wanda. He then looked at Kim, as if expecting a hug from her too. After not getting one, he left. Wanda and Audrey then left, leaving Heather, Kim, and Erika.

“Uh, I guess I’ll leave you two alone.” Erika then left as well, leaving just Heather and Kim.

“So here’s the deal Kim. I’ll bring you to the warehouse, but I’ll leave soon after you enter it. I won’t guide you back, so remember the route so you don’t get lost. Also, I suggest we leave this room at 10 so that nobody catches us going to the warehouse. Do you have any questions? No? Good.” Heather then turned away. Kim took off her Duel Disk and rested her head for a while. When she lifted it up again, it was 10. Heather was at the door. Kim put on her Duel Disk and walked towards Heather. “Listen Kim,” Heather whispered. “We have to be absolutely quiet. Security is around everywhere. If you get caught, we’re both caught, and we’ll each get sent to the Chancellor’s office for him to decide our judgment. Not just that, but we’ll have to see his toy Sludge Hammer. It’s like a sledge hammer, but it squirts out goopy stuff when it slams against a surface, or so I’ve been told. Anyway, follow me.” Heather tiptoed across the ground and opened the door at the end of the hallway. Kim then quickly followed. After a few more hallways, they were outside. Heather and Kim then saw some guards walking around. Kim and Heather hid behind the bushes. Kim then noticed something.

“Hey Heather?”

“Yeah Kim?”

“Didn’t you notice that these guards move in the same pattern every time?”

“Yeah, so?”

“Don’t you think that we should use a pattern that will make us not be seen to get around these guards?”

“Do you really think that will work? We aren’t in a video game and those aren’t computer guards. They can change their pattern and their view anytime.”

“Isn’t it worth a shot at least?”

“Okay sure.” Heather looked at the guards for about another minute. “I know what route we’ll use. Let’s just wait a little bit.” After a few seconds, Heather and Kim got out of the bushes and followed the pathway they had imagined. It worked incredibly, as if they were in a video game. They then ran to the warehouse unnoticed. “I really can’t believe that worked. Anyway, we’re at the warehouse, so see you Kim.” Kim then went inside the warehouse. She looked around, but there was nobody there. Then, out of nowhere, somebody in a cloak appeared. The cloak was designed with a few white lines that were symmetrical if a vertical line were drawn on the middle of the cloak. However, the cloak’s right side was full of color while the cloak’s left side was just black.

“I’m glad to see you Kim. It appears you beat Daniel. Now let’s see if you can beat me.”

“Can you just tell me who you are?” The figure looked up. It had a full mask on.

“Maybe you’ll find that out during our duel.” The figure raised its Duel Disk.

“All right then.” Kim raised her Duel Disk.

“It's time to Duel!” both of them yelled as their Duel Disks activated.

“I’ll go first,” said the cloaked figure. “I draw.” It drew a card. “I summon Tuned Magician.” Tuned Magician appeared on the field ready to fight (ATK 1800).

A deck focused on Gemini monsters? That can only mean…. “Gemini, it’s you, isn’t it? Why did you come after me again?”

“I’ll tell you after the duel, when you’re mine again. Anyway, I’ll continue on with my move. I place 2 cards face-down and I’ll activate Non-Spellcasting Area.” A yellow orb appeared around the soldier. “I’ll end my turn.”

“It’s my turn then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. “I activate the card Cross of the Dimensions. With this I can activate Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt from my deck.” A forest appeared. Two trees with a pink banner with the words “Scavenger Hunt” appeared.

“Unfortunately for me I don’t have a Field Spell, so I draw 4 cards and take 1000 damage, right?” Gemini drew 4 cards and his Life Points decreased by 1000 (Gemini 7000).

“I activate Easter Egg 8 from my deck using my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt’s effect, so I-”

“I object! I activate my face-down, Arbitrary Judgment. With this card, if you summon a monster or activate a Spell or Trap Card by another card’s effect, I can destroy the card. If the destruction is successful, then any effects it has are negated, so I choose to destroy that Easter Egg 8.” Just as the egg started to appear, it immediately disappeared.

“If that’s the case, I’ll summon Easter Egg Scouter.” A man with an egg-shaped egg and a pink bandanna appeared (ATK 1600). “I’ll activate his special ability, so I can add Easter Egg 10 from my deck to my hand. I think I’ll activate it right now.” A green and blue Egg with a pink 10 appeared. “I activate its effect, so I summon a monster from my hand and you summon a monster that is 2 levels lower from your deck. I choose to summon my Dragon of the Many Eggs.” A dragon with a green body, blue wings, blue stripes, and pink claws appeared (ATK 2100).

“Very well. I summon Gemini Soldier.” Gemini Soldier appeared on the field ready to fight (ATK 500). The egg with the 10 turned gray.

“Really? In Attack Mode? Whatever. Easter Egg Scouter, attack his Soldier.”

“I activate the card Ultimate Offering, so I can pay 500 Life Points to Normal Summon a monster. I choose to pay 500 Life Points to Gemini Summon my Soldier.” Gemini paid 500 Life Points (Gemini 6500) and his Gemini Soldier’s green armor started to glow. The man with the Egg-shaped head grew claws and started walking towards the Gemini Soldier. He threw his flying dart at the man. He caught it and crushed it with his hand (Gemini 5400). Gemini’s mask cracked. The propeller at the end of the dart was unharmed and landed next to the Gemini Soldier.

“What happened?”

“Well, I’m sure you know that whenever I have a Normal Summon, I can instead use it to Gemini Summon a Normal Gemini monster I control and it becomes an effect monster and gains its effect. Gemini Soldier’s ability happens to be that, once per turn, it can’t be destroyed in battle. Not just that, but after it battles, it can summon another Level 4 or lower Gemini monster out of my deck.” The Gemini Soldier picked up the propeller and threw it sideways a small distance away. It never hit the ground, but instead grew larger and kept spinning. Then a pillar of light appeared on it. “I summon Dark Valkyria.” Dark Valkyria appeared behind the curtain of light where the spinning propeller was (ATK 1800).

“Now I’ll have Dragon of the Many Eggs attack the Gemini Soldier.” He may be able to summon another monster, but if I don’t do anything about it now, he’ll get even more monsters. Not just that, but this move will deal him the most damage. All I have to do is burn his Life Points to nothing to win.The dragon flew towards the Gemini Soldier and slashed, destroying it (Gemini 3800). Gemini’s mask cracked more. The glowing armor then broke into little pieces of a pillar of light. The pieces assembled and another monster appeared behind the curtain: Gemini Lancer (ATK 1800). “I activate Easter Egg 7 from my hand.” An egg with a pink 7 appeared. “I’ll use its effect to destroy your Dark Valkyria.” Dark Valkyria disappeared and the egg with the 7 disappeared. “I place two cards face-down and I’ll end my turn.”

“Very well. I draw.” Gemini drew a card. “I activate Mystical Space Typhoon, so I can destroy that Easter Egg 7.”

“Not quite. I activate Preparations for Easter, so I remove both of my Eggs and Easter Eggs 1, 9, and 7 from my deck from play in order to add Easter Knight to my hand. Oh yeah, and those removed Eggs are treated as being removed by Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” The two eggs on the field disappeared.

“Whatever. Thanks to that Cross of the Dimensions card and my Gemini Soldier, I still have a tremendous amount of cards. Now it’s time for me to show you what this abundance of cards can do. I Gemini Summon the Tuned Magician on my field, so now it’s a Tuner monster.” Tuned Magician’s staff started to glow. “Now I tune my Tuned Magician (Level 4) to my Gemini Lancer (Level 4). Many weak beings have hidden potential. Use your strength to protect them. Synchro Summon! Find their potential, Black Bulldrago!” Black Bulldrago appeared on the field (ATK 2800). “Now I activate Polymerization, which allows me to fuse Gigaplant and Future Samurai in order to summon Superalloy Beast Raptinus.” A portal appeared. Future Samurai and Gigaplant appeared and flew into the portal. A flash of light appeared and, where the portal was, instead was Superalloy Beast Raptinus (ATK 2200). “Don’t think I’m done yet. I have one more card to play: I activate Synthesis Spell, so I can Tribute the Chthonian Emperor Dragon in my hand in order to summon Lycanthrope.” A strange platform appeared on the ground. In the middle were 6 poles each with a power absorber. Chthonian Emperor Dragon was placed in the altar. Each one of the power sensors absorbed the Dragon’s power. They shaped the power into the form of a werewolf and projected it on the Dragon. A flash of light appeared. Lycanthrope appeared where the platform was (ATK 2400).

A Synchro Monster, Fusion Monster, and Ritual Monster, all in one turn?

“Now I activate a card in my deck known as Summon Variety. If, this turn, I summoned a Synchro Monster, a Fusion Monster, and a Ritual Monster, at least 1 of which is an effect monster, this card can be activated straight of my deck, and I draw 3 cards.” Gemini drew 3 cards. “And I got just what I needed. I activate my Bulldrago’s effect: I send the Blazewing Butterfly in my hand to the Graveyard to destroy a Spell or Trap you control. I’ll destroy your face-down. Don’t forget I have 2 more cards in my hand. I pay 1000 Life Points to Normal Summon them both.” Gemini paid another 1000 Life Points (Gemini 2800) and summoned Goggle Golem (ATK 1500) and Phantom Dragonray Bronto (ATK 1500). His mask was almost completely cracked and obviously wouldn’t last much longer. “Don’t think they’ll stay small for long. Now my Raptinus kicks in, giving them their effects.” The two Gemini monsters started to glow (Goggle Golem’s ATK 2100, PDB’s ATK 2300). “It’s over. Goggle Golem, attack the Scouter.” Goggle Golem punched the man in the head with his glowing fist, easily destroying the man (Kim 7500). “Phantom Dragonray Bronto, attack the Dragon of the Many Eggs.” Phantom Dragonray stuck out its glowing tongue at the dragon. The dragon tried to slash at the tongue. When its claw got too close, though, the tongue immediately opened its mouth and grabbed onto the claw. It then used its many teeth to dig into the claw. The tongue started to drain the power of the dragon. The Dragonray’s tail then stuck the dragon in the back, destroying it (Kim 7300). “My Dragonray will go into Defense mode at the end of the battle phase, but you won’t last that long. Black Bulldrago, attack her directly!” Black Bulldrago slowly walked toward Kim. It lifted its claws and a lightning bolt struck it. It didn’t seem to bother the giant dragon; in fact, he seemed to enjoy it. It clawed into Kim with its electric claw (Kim 4300).

“Ahhhhh” Kim yelled with pain! “Can’t you give a girl a break!?”

“I wish I could, but I must attack with both monsters in order to defeat you. The only question is how much pain I should make you feel. Sorry, but I think I’ll do this the fun way. Lycanthrope, attack her directly.” The Lycanthrope slashed at Kim (Kim 1900). “Now time for Lycanthrope’s effect: I count the number of Normal monsters in my Graveyard and for each one you take 200 points of damage. Let’s count them up.” Tuned magician, Gemini Soldier, dark Valkyria, Gemini Lancer, Gigaplant, Future Samurai, Chthonian Emperor Dragon, and Blazewing Butterfly appeared behind Lycanthrope. “Since Gemini monsters are Normal monsters in the Graveyard, I count 8, so that’s 1600 points. Now, Lycanthrope, use your second slash.” Lycanthrope slashed once more at Kim (Kim 300). “This is the end Kim. Don’t worry, you won’t feel the pain when you’re with me again. Raptinus, end this!” Raptinus released a blue lightning attack from its mouth, striking Kim right in the heart (Kim 0).

Kim fell to the ground. Ow, that really hurt!

“You couldn’t win that duel because you didn’t use your dark powers against me. Just be glad that I didn’t take this duel to the Shadow Realm. In the Shadow Realm, the damage would have been real and you wouldn’t have survived my Raptinus’s attack.” He started walking towards her. Kim got up and ran toward the door. “Oh no you don’t.” A wall of blue flame appeared, blocking the door. Kim turned around. “I think it’s time to show you who I really am.” Gemini took off his mask which crumbled away into nothing soon after. He looked directly at Kim’s eyes. He couldn’t believe who she saw.

“James, is that you?” Kim asked, although she already knew the answer. His gray eyes with a streak of black in each iris gave it away quite blatantly.

“That’s right. Mond, James Mond.”

“But James, you broke up with me and stole my Mirror Force and later took over my mind with the help of Earthbound Immortal Ppicuaru. What gives? Why did you even break up with me if you were just going to take me back using dark powers?”

“Who said I even wanted to break up with you? Perhaps you should take a closer look.”

“What?” Kim then saw Lycanthrope behind James. That explains everything. He was being possessed by the Lycanthrope. Everything is so clear now. “Now I get it. The only reason any of this happened is because you’ve been using James’s body to do whatever you want. So why are you even going after me?” Kim continued trying to walk away from James as James kept getting closer.

“That doesn’t matter right now. Now come join forces with me. Ppicuaru wants another test run. You’ll gain your true dark powers.” James reached out his hand.

“No, I won’t join you like this!”

“You don’t have a choice in the matter!” yelled a Lycanthrope-possessed James as he grabbed Kim. He pulled her in and held her around the waist. He put his mouth up to Kim’s ear. “Listen. If you just join me, I’ll release your boyfriend from my control. He’ll be the same as before he dumped you. Don’t you want him back? Don’t you want to spend forever with him?”

Kim thought about this for a moment. “But Ppicuaru will control me again, won’t it? I don’t get anything out of this deal.”

“I told you, you don’t have a choice in the matter.” He put his hand on Kim’s head. She heard an explosion in the background just before she fell unconscious.

Kim woke up later in a strange room. It didn’t have any windows in it, but an abundance of lights kept it well lit. She was lying on a table with a table cloth. She stood up in this large gray room. “Hello? Anybody out there?” she yelled out, hoping for an answer from anybody other than James. All of sudden, a door opened from behind her. She looked behind her. It was Arkana in his Wicked Warlocks cloak. “Arkana … tell me what’s going on.”

“Don’t worry, you’re in good hands. Everybody, get out here.” Arkana and all the other Wicked Warlocks appeared. “We saved you from the hands of your boyfriend and kept you in here until you woke up.”

“Okay, that’s good.” A thought crossed Kim’s mind. “Wait a minute, did any of you-!”

“Kim, when I said you’re in good hands, I mean that made sure nobody entered this room while you were unconscious. Nothing happened to you during that time. Anyway, we have business to discuss. This is actually our business room, hence why you were sleeping on a table. We figured it would save time to have you in here at the start. Anyway, get a chair and we can discuss everything.” Arkana and the other members of the Wicked Warlocks sat around the table. Kim pulled up a nearby gray chair, probably made of rock, to the end of the table. The boy on the other end of the table, probably the leader, stood up. He was definitely the tallest one of the Wicked Warlocks.

“I now bring this Wicked Warlocks meeting to order. We should first discuss the ultimate profit or loss of Cabal Points Kim gets.”

“Wait, what?” asked Kim.

“As you should know, the Wicked Warlocks are pretty much the Cabal of the school,” said the leader. “We used to call our imaginary currency Wicked Warlock Points, but we shortened it to Cabal Points. Anyway, any time we do something for you, you owe us a Cabal Point; when you do something we wanted done, you get a Cabal Point. We will only require you to do cabal tasks if you are in the negative and you can only request us to do tasks if you are in the positive. We can still request you do tasks if you aren’t in the negative, but it isn’t required; if you don’t though, you lose the opportunity to get a Cabal Point. Do you get how this system works?”

“Yes, I do,” replied Kim.

“Good. Now, subordinates, we must discuss the circumstances and what Kim actually did for us.” Much discussion went on. A few minutes later, the Wicked Warlocks turned towards Kim. “Here is what we have decided: since we rescued you, you would lose 1 Cabal Point, but given the other circumstances, we decided this rescue should be on the house. Also, since you found us a new warehouse, you get a Cabal Point. The other cool thing is that the warehouse you found was actually the warehouse of the Ethical Enchanters. We know where they are and they don’t know where we are, so that gives you another Cabal Point. Totaled up, you have 2 Cabal Points. Please tell any of us if you need any help with anything Kim. Is there anything you would like to know Kim?”

“Yeah, what time is it? And how did you know to come to my rescue?”

“It’s 7 in the morning. You slept through the night. Anyway, the hidden video camera on your Duel Disk let us see the duel and what happened afterward.”

“Really? Thanks. You guys are the best.”

“Don’t thank us, it was Mike’s idea. In fact, he put the camera on in the first place.” Kim looked at Mike. He looked at Kim and then faced forward again. “Anyway, let’s get to what happened in the warehouse. First we exploded the side of the warehouse. We saw your boyfriend had taken off your coat and was rummaging through your pockets. Mike pointed out that your boyfriend was being possessed by Lycanthrope. Arkana summoned his Dark Magician to scare the Lycanthrope away. Your boyfriend, possessed by Lycanthrope, ran away as planned. He also dropped two things. Here they are.” The leader passed the two things down the line of Wicked Warlock members. Kim grabbed them: a note, and a Dark Valkyria card. “Once Lycanthrope left the building, the Ethical Enchanters emerged from their hiding places. They readied their Duel Disks and their Duel Disk cuffs. They said that invading their territory would only bring them a world of hurt. They obviously bring that world of hurt against the Lycanthrope. Anyway, even after trying to explain to them that we were just trying to rescue you from harm, they still wanted a duel. After some negotiation, we agreed to just one 1-on-1 duel and that we’ll have our all-out war another time. The rest of our members, including me, brought you to safety. We made sure nothing bad happened. We didn’t really see how the duel went, but we know how it resulted.”

“I won,” said another of the Wicked Warlocks members. “That Ethical Enchanter never knew what hit her. Would you like to hear the story?”

“Sure,” Kim replied.

“Okay. It went like this….”

The Wicked Warlocks member started to tell his story. “I was chosen for the duel against the Ethical Enchanters member. You guys ran off to bring Kim to safety. An Ethical Enchantress stepped forward to duel me while the other Ethical Enchanters left. When one was turning away though, I thought I saw a green glow com from one of the leaders. Then, the girl who stepped forward readied her Duel Disk.

‘You’re gonna lose, Sasuke! There’s no way you’ll beat my ultimate strategy!’ she yelled. Of course I wanted to make her eat her words. Luckily, I think I got my Duel on video, since I had a hidden video camera attached to my Duel Disk. Now I just have to figure out how to show the video.”

“Just give me that Duel Disk,” said Mike. “I can get that done easily.” He took out a laptop, looked at the Duel Disk, fiddled with it, took off the camera, and connected the camera to the laptop. He then pushed a few buttons and pushed the laptop to the center of the table. He then found the projector, connected it to the laptop, and played the video of the duel on the wall. Everybody watched:

“I’ll start this duel off!” yelled Sasuke. “I draw.” He drew a card. “I summon Nin-Ken Dog.” Nin-Ken Dog appeared beside him (ATK 1800). “I place 3 cards face-down and I’ll end my turn.”

“It’s my turn now. I draw,” said the Ethical Enchantress as she drew a card. “I’ll start by summoning Beast Striker.” Beast Striker appeared on the field (ATK 1850). “Now I’ll activate its effect: I discard a card to summon Moja from the deck.” She discarded a card and a Moja appeared (DEF 100). “Now I tribute Moja to summon King of the Beasts from my Graveyard.” Silver circles appeared around the Moja as it grew into the King of the Beasts (ATK 2500). “Now I’ll have King of the Beasts attack your Nin-Ken Dog.” The King of the Beasts lowered its head and bit into the Nin-Ken Dog (Sasuke 7300). “Now I’ll have Beast Striker attack you directly.” Beast Striker struck Sasuke with his giant hammer (Sasuke 5450). “I place 2 cards face-down and end my turn.”

“It’s my turn then. I draw!” Sasuke drew a card. “I activate Giant Trunade, but I’ll chain Anti-Trunade. Now only your Spells and Traps are returned to the field, but I draw a card for every card not returned this way, so I draw 2 cards.” Sasuke drew 2 cards as the storm blew away the Ethical Enchantress’s face-downs. “Now I summon my White Ninja.” White Ninja appeared on the field (ATK 1500). “I’ll use my Ninjitsu Art of Transformation to change my White Ninja into a Level 7 Winged Beast, Beast, or Insect monster. The monster I choose is Dark Simorgh.” White Ninja jumped into the air and transformed into Dark Simorgh (ATK 2700). “Now I activate Anti-Spell Fragrance, so now Spells must be set before they are used. Thanks to Dark Simorgh, you can’t set cards, so the only thing you can do is summon monsters. Now I’ll have Dark Simorgh attack your Beast Striker.” Dark Simorgh flapped its wings. The impact of the wind destroyed Beast Striker (Ethical Enchantress 7150). “I’ll place a card face-down and I’ll end my turn.”

“It’s my move then. I draw.” The Ethical Enchantress drew a card. “I summon Breaker he Magical Warrior.” Breaker the Magical Warrior appeared with his sword ready (ATK 1600). “Since he was just Normal Summoned, he got a Spell Counter, so his ATK points are increased by 300.” The Spell Counter did just as she claimed (ATK 1900). “Now I activate Breaker’s effect: it can remove its counter to destroy a Spell or Trap card you control.”

“So what will that do? Oh wait!”

“Sounds like you realized that I’m going to have Breaker destroy your Ninjitsu Art of Transformation. Go Breaker, destroy it!” Breaker created a magical slash that destroyed the Ninjitsu Art of Transformation. Dark Simorgh was destroyed as well as Breaker’s ATK points decreased (ATK 1600). “Since your Ninjitsu card was destroyed, your great bird was destroyed as well. Now I’ll have my monsters attack you directly.” Sasuke took a slash from Breaker and a gnawing from King of the Beasts (Sasuke 1350). “I set 2 cards and I’ll end my turn.”

“I draw-”

“I activate Dust Tornado, which destroys your Anti-Spell Fragrance.” A small tornado started.

“I activate Curse of Royal, stopping your Tornado.” The tornado stopped and Sasuke drew his card. “For starters, I remove Goe Goe the Gallant Ninja and Strike Ninja to summon Dark Simorgh.” The two cards disappeared as Dark Simorgh reappeared (ATK 2700). “I summon my Kunoichi.” Kunoichi appeared next to the bird (ATK 1800).

“To that I respond with Torrential Tribute, so all monsters are destroyed.” A heavy rainstorm cleared away all the monsters. However, Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest appeared in the fight (ATK 2600).

“How was he summoned!?”

“When a Beast-type monster I control is destroyed, like King of the Beasts, I can summon Green Baboon, Defender of the Forest from my hand or Graveyard by paying 1000 Life Points (Ethical Enchantress 6150).”

“In that case, I’ll set a card and end my turn.”

“I draw-”

“I activate Call of the Haunted, so my Dark Simorgh comes back for another round.” Dark Simorgh then reappeared (ATK 2700).

“Fine, I’ll end my turn.”

“It’s my turn then. I draw.” Sasuke drew a card. “It’s time to introduce my favorite monster, Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke!” Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke appeared (ATK 1800). “I’ll power him up with Fuhma Shuriken!” Sasuke instantly got a new set of shurikens (ATK 2500). “Dark Simorgh, destroy that Baboon!” Dark Simorgh made a gust of wind. The impact destroyed the Green Baboon (Ethical Enchantress 6050). “Grandmaster, show her what ninjas named Sasuke can do!” Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke threw a Shuriken at the Ethical Enchantress (Ethical Enchantress 3550). “I place two cards face-down and I’ll end my turn.”

“I draw then. I summon Diseased Panther.” A small panther appeared on the field (ATK 1000). “Now I activate its effect: rather than attacking, it can negate a monster’s effect and we each draw a card.” Each player drew a card. “I set a card and I’ll end my turn.”

“It’s my turn then. I draw!” Sasuke drew a card.

“Now I activate Wall of Revealing Light, so I pay 3000 Life Points (Ethical Enchantress 550).” A wall with the number 3000 at the top appeared, blocking the Dark Simorgh.

“If that’s how you’ll play, I summon Ninja Commando Kabuki.” Kabuki appeared on the field (ATK 700). “Since he was just summoned, I can summon Ninja Commander Ikusa from my deck.” Ikusa then appeared next to Kabuki (ATK 700). “I can then using Ikusa’s effect to Ninja Soldier Katana from my deck.” Katana appeared (ATK 400).

“What good are your weak monsters?”

“I activate United We Stand on my Sasuke!” Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke’s hand turned to gold while his monster monsters’ hands or talons turned to other metals. Ninja Grandmaster Sasuke held up his hand and virtual chains appeared, connecting every one of the Grandmaster’s allies to him, giving him a major power boost (ATK 6500). “Now Sasuke, attack that Panther.” The Ninja Grandmaster threw a shuriken, but both monsters destroyed each other.

“My Panther has another effect: by paying 500 Life Points (Ethical Enchantress 50), I can destroy both monsters and inflict damage to you equal to my monster’s ATK.” A phantom slashed at Sasuke’s chest (Sasuke 350). Then a shuriken hit the Ethical Enchantress in the head (Ethical Enchantress 0).

“My Fuhma Shuriken had another effect too: when they are sent to the Graveyard, you take 700 damage, so I win.” The Ethical Enchantress’s Duel Disk blew up. The screen then faded out, showing that the video was done.

Sasuke continued his story. “Obviously the camera turned off because the duel was over, but that doesn’t give the full story; it doesn’t show how I escaped. That was the coolest part. The other Ethical Enchanters then tried to stop me from leaving with their Duel Disk cuffs. One of them caught me on the ankle. I tried jumping to one of the higher platforms, but it wouldn’t reach far enough, so I had to use my new secret weapons.” He took out a smoke bomb, a shuriken, and a secret compartment in the front of his cloak. He placed the smoke bomb and the shuriken on the table and took out the thin cloak and mask that were inside the secret compartment. “First I activated a smoke bomb, covering the area around me in smoke. Then I used my special super-sharp Shuriken to cut the chain on my foot. I grabbed it and jumped to a higher platform. After that I jumped out the door and used my super-sharp Shuriken to cut off the cuff part that was still attached to my ankle. The coolest part was that they didn’t see me leave the building because of this special cloak and mask.” He lifted the special cloak and mask. “These are made of chameleons’ skin and they camouflage into the environment around it. Watch this!” He put the cloak above his Wicked Warlocks cloak and put the mask on. Soon after the cloak and mask’s color changed to a gray color. It matched the meeting room’s color and design perfectly. He moved in front of a lamp and the cloak and mask almost instantly changed to show the lamp behind it. “I’m like a fly on the wall with these things on, meaning I could escape very easily. I also made sure that nobody could follow the tracks back here, so no worries.”

“Very good, Sasuke,” said the leader in a very unenthusiastic manner. “Now who do we owe Cabal Points to for the new weaponry?”

“What do you mean?”

“There is no way you could have made those by yourself.”

“I’m an expert ninja, of course I could.”

“Don’t cover up the truth about your rank as a ninja…” As the argument continued, Kim read the note she received. It appeared to be translated from Morse code. It read:

Ha ha ha STOP I got your cell phone STOP Ha ha ha STOP Don’t even try looking for it in your pockets STOP Ha ha ha STOP You have until Saturday to beat me in a card game STOP Ha ha ha STOP Just watch out because I slowly get more powerful over time STOP Ha ha ha STOP You just might not be able to beat me on that Saturday no matter what STOP Ha ha ha STOP But I know you really cannot beat me unless you realize that dark power of yours and even then you might not be able to beat me STOP Ha ha ha STOP I will be in that warehouse every night until Saturday STOP Ha ha ha STOP Just don’t be caught by the Ethical Enchanters STOP Ha ha ha STOP I think that is all but I have been known to be wrong STOP Ha ha ha STOP

Why did he also give me that card?

“What’s that note say?” Arkana was looking over Kim’s shoulder at the note. “Oh yeah, we forgot to mention that your boyfriend dropped the Dark Valkyria card. Maybe you could use it to beat him.”

At least that’s something. But I really doubt it will come in handy that much. After all, my current deck doesn’t quite work with this card. “Yeah. Maybe.”

“You have a dark power?”

“What?”

“That note … it says you need to utilize your dark power. I knew you had a dark aura, but what is this dark power he talks about?”

“I’m not sure.” Yet I’m sure it has something to do with the darkness that he infected me with. Maybe he didn’t think I would be able to control it. “Maybe it’s my power to control myself even when consumed by the darkness, like what happened …” Kim’s voice trailed off. Like what happened when I dueled John when he was taken over by the Wicked Gods. I was able to fall into the darkness and maintain control. But I was only able to enter my stage of darkness when I used the Bad Eggs, and John has those cards now. Maybe I should have tried harder to make that all-around Egg deck. Maybe-

“Kim, you alright?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry about that, I just kinda lost focus as I traveled down memory lane in my head. So wait, what was that thing you did when we dueled? That giant seal on the ground?”

“Oh yeah, that. I’ll tell you about that eventually, but for now let’s keep that information among the Wicked Warlocks. I’ll tell you if you join, or if you learn the truth about the Wicked Warlocks.” He smiled and walked away.

“I think everything was explained, but I could be wrong. Let’s just pretend all the necessary topics were covered. This meeting is now adjourned,” said the Wicked Warlocks leader. Many of the Wicked Warlocks left. Mike was packing away some of his technical equipment. Kim walked over to him.

“Tell me what’s wrong,” Kim said sternly.

“What do you mean?”

“You for some reason don’t like me despite not knowing very well. Do you have something against me or against something about me? What’s the problem you have with me?” Mike looked towards Kim.

“It’s nothing,” he said as he was about to leave.

“You know what I think?” Kim said, thinking of a plan to get him to talk. “I think you like me.”

“What? No, that’s not it. Quite the contrary.”

“So you do dislike me. Tell me why.” Kim led Mike to the table.

“Okay, fine, I’ll tell you. I just hope you have time for a small story.”

“Of course.”

“Once, when I was much younger, I was looking for a duel when 4 girls with green shirts, blue miniskirts, dark auras, and an E on each hand chased me down and cornered me. One threw a duel disk cuff at my duel disk and it snapped on. I had to duel at that point.”

That’s pretty much the duel gang I had, before my dad became so protective of me. Wow, those were some good times. I found 4 other girls who didn’t like being treated as inferior duelists because we were girls, so we decided that we should show the boys our true power. Since I was the organizer, I was pretty much considered the leader, so the other girls followed whatever I did. We decided we would do this on Easter. We decided to call our movement the Easter Epiphany because it sounded cool and that it would be done on Easter. It was especially fitting that I used an Easter deck, but that was because easter is my favorite holiday. We all wore green shirts and blue miniskirts and we drew a black E on each of our hands to represent Easter Epiphany. On that day, we used duel disk cuffs to force them to duel and destroy their duel disks when they lost. At the end of the day, we decided that that day wasn’t enough and that we should continue our Easter Epiphany. We defeated boy after boy, and there seemed to be nothing to stop us. Eventually we came across a boy who none of my other 4 members could defeat. I defeated him, but I was amazed at how good of a duelist he was. I found out his name was James Mond. I decided to hang out with him. Eventually I fell in love with him and I quit the duel gang. Those girls, though, didn’t quit the duel gang.

“To summarize, I ended up losing the duel, but my special device stopped my duel disk from exploding. They weren’t satisfied, so they took my 6 favorite cards, my five Exodia pieces and my Orichalcos Shunoros. Then a boy called Slash later told me about an organization known as the Wicked Warlocks who would help me reclaim those cards, so I joined. Sure enough we found and defeated those 4 girls, but they only had Exodia’s limbs; they didn’t have Exodia the Forbidden One or Orichalcos Shunoros.”

That’s because they gave those cards to me in order to try to get me back into the gang. I refused their offer though, but they let me keep the cards. I decided to give Exodia to James. Eventually I brought James over to my house and my dad disapproved. I still found a way to meet up with James no matter what. Eventually my gang was taken down. When that day came, I somehow lost touch with my deck and I couldn’t figure it out anymore. It was as if my memories about how to use the deck were drained from me. James told me he would love no matter what happened, and I knew he felt that way. Eventually though, he broke up with me and stole my Mirror Force, making my entire deck seem like trash to me, especially since I couldn’t win against anybody with it. That is, until I met John…. “So what does this story have to do with me?”

“Slash promised me that, as long as I joined the Wicked Warlocks, all my wishes would come true. All my wishes but getting those 2 cards back have come true. I only lost those cards because of dark girls like you!”

“Wait, so you’re associating me with dark girls like them? Not all dark girls I like that.”

“Do you expect me to believe that? You dark girls are tricky creatures that shouldn’t be trusted. In fact, all you girls are just plain tricky.”

“I suppose you’ve been tricked by girls a lot in your life?”

“What does it matter to you!? You don’t care,” Mike left the room.

This card situation is somehow my fault, or at least the fault of at least 1 girl with a dark aura. No wonder he has such a strong dislike of me. I just need to show him that most girls aren’t like the girls that did all those things to him in his earlier years, and that I’m not really that kind of person anymore either. Kim found her way out of the room. She ran back to her dorm room. She walked into her room. Heather was just standing there.

“Ha! I knew you were part of the Wicked Warlocks!”

“Heather, let’s not even talk about this. I just want to prepare for the school day, so don’t bother me about all this Wicked Warlock and Ethical Enchanter stuff.”

“Fine. Be that way. But just know that now everybody in the school knows that you’re Warlock scum.” Heather walked to her side of the room. Kim took her school bag and left. As she walked by the front gate, she thought she heard something. She walked towards the front gate. She then saw a part of the ground get lifted up and pushed out of the way. Mr. Shadow appeared from the hole.

“Hey Kim.”

“Dad? How did you…? Why are you here?”

“What, a guy can’t stop in front of a Duel academy to say hi to his daughter?”

“Now tell me the real reason.”

“Okay.” Mr. Shadow crawled out of the hole and covered it again. “Last night I got a weird feeling you were in danger. When I called your cell phone, nobody answered, so I became a bit more worried. What happened to you last night?”

“A Duel Spirit possessed by last boyfriend and-”

“Wait, John?”

“No, James Mond.”

“Oh, you mean that jerk? I mean, uh, carry on.”

“The Lycanthrope Duel spirit took over my boyfriend’s body and challenged me to a duel with the intent of pulling me back into the darkness and back under Earthbound Immortal Ppicuaru’s control. I ended up losing, but I ended up being rescued by the Wicked Warlocks. Sadly they couldn’t rescue my cell phone.”

“Hmm, so the Wicked Warlocks are here now, huh? I was wondering where they ended up.”

“What do you mean?”

“I originally started the group known as the Wicked Warlocks. Each of these new Wicked Warlocks is one of the sons of each of the original Wicked Warlocks. If you were a boy I would have made you join too. Anyway, the Wicked Warlocks in this school follow the same rules as the original ones did, and that first rule was: no girls allowed. However, since I didn’t have a son and instead had a daughter, one of the Wicked Warlocks was quick to change their mind about that rule and he told his son to let the girl join the Wicked Warlocks. I believe that son’s name is Arkana. Since I still follow the rules, I believe that, as a girl, you should not get completely mixed up in their business, but maybe you could make an alliance with them. That’s why I decided to let you have a choice in whether you wanted to join or not. Based on your black outfit, I would have to say you joined.”

“I didn’t officially join, but I might as well have. Everyone in this school except those who wear black coats thinks I’m a member and thinks badly of me and all the kids with black coats are very kind to me, especially since all the people besides me who wear black coats are the boys in the Wicked Warlocks.”

“They’re very kind to you because you are the daughter of the leader of the original Wicked Warlocks - me. That, and you’re a cute girl. But anyway, that isn’t what I was originally here to talk about. I want to tell you the truth about the darkness….”

“The truth behind the darkness?” Kim asked. “What do you mean?”

“I’ll tell you more,” replied Mr. Shadow, “but first let me onto the school grounds. It’s really annoying to wait out here.”

“Oh right.” Kim opened the gates with her card key.

“Good. Now is there an open, empty field around here? I don’t want anybody listening in on this.” Kim led him to a dueling field. There was nobody there. “Good. Now sit down because this story might take a while, even though I’ll try to shorten it as much as possible.” Kim sat down on the grass, as did Mr. Shadow. “About 10,000 years ago, there was a city known as Atlantis. It was economically perfect, until the Orichalcos came. The Orichalcos caused a powerful darkness to enter the souls of some of the people, mainly the leader named Dartz. He used the dark power of the Orichalcos to take people’s souls through duels. This isn’t the only type of darkness though. 5000 years ago, when the pyramids were still young-”

“Yeah yeah, I know that story. Sorcerers used the dark power to cause chaos, until the pharaoh locked the magic away inside the Millennium Items. But what do you mean different types of darkness? Isn’t all darkness the same?”

“No. The Orichalcos darkness is very different from the Millennium darkness. Over the years, more and more types of darkness have developed, until it eventually split into small groups. All the people in the Wicked Warlocks have the same type of darkness. The only person with the Wicked Warlocks darkness who isn’t part of the Wicked Warlocks … is you.”

“Sounds like you want me to join them.”

“No I don’t. I want you to be safe. Unfortunately, having that darkness in your soul forever binds them to you. I decided that I should let you choose whether you want to be with them or not.”

“Hey dad?”

“What is it Kim?”

“When Arkana was trying to get me to join the Wicked Warlocks, he slammed his staff into the ground and it created a dark seal around us, which was probably to prevent me from escaping. How did he create that circle of dark energy?”

“Some people have the special ability to control darkness like those ancient Egyptian sorcerers used to. Arkana has that power, as do I, but you do not.”

“Okay then.” Kim then thought of a question. “Hey dad, I don’t really remember mom that well. What was she like?”

“Oh yeah, mom died when you were very young. She was a being of light. The same family lineage rules apply to light as well. In other words, you are both a light being and a dark being. They balance each other out very well.”

“So is that why I’m not a dark sorceress?”

“Yes. If both your mom and I were dark, then you would have had dark powers. However, something happened to you to give you a dark aura rather than a mixed aura.”

“Yeah. When I was captured, James put a darkness into me and it made me evil.”

“What he did was he infected you with a mix of Underworld darkness and a dark symbiotic. The Underworld darkness was designed to take over the minds of innocent people using an Earthbound Immortal. The dark symbiotic was there to eat away at your light while strengthening your natural darkness.”

“Yeah, but I could only use that darkness when I had the Bad Egg deck. I gave that deck to John and now I need to use my darkness again. Do you have any ideas?”

“Yes. I can teach you how to utilize your inner darkness anytime. I was actually going to teach you that from the start.” Mr. Shadow looked around, then stood up and walked over to Kim. Kim stood up. Mr. Shadow took out his deck and placed it in Kim’s hand. A dark shadow emerged from it and covered Kim. When the darkness passed, she was in her dark outfit: mascara, eyeliner, nail polish, shirt, miniskirt, leggings, socks, sneakers, shoelaces, and Duel Disk, all completely black. Her hair was also jet black. “It worked! That deck is now your deck. It is the deck of the leader of the Wicked Warlocks. Now let me see you use it against me.” Mr. Shadow took out a Duel disk and placed another deck in it.

Kim looked at her new deck. It’s the DARK deck that dad used against John and me. Now why does he want me to have it? Wait, I should put dark Valkyria into this deck. Kim put Dark Valkyria into the deck and the dark aura surrounding the deck grew a bit more, as did Kim’s dark aura. Kim placed the deck into the duel disk. “It’s time to duel, dad.”

Mr. Shadow and Kim drew 5 cards. “I’ll start this duel off, Kim. I draw.” Mr. Shadow drew a card. “I activate Pandemonium.” The area around them changed into a demonic ceremonial building without a roof or decently built walls. “I summon my Shadowknight Archfiend.” Shadowknight Archfiend appeared next to him (ATK 2000).

I’ve never seen him use these cards before. Is this really his main deck?

“Damon!” Somebody yelled from somewhere. “Is that really you?” A man in a black suit ran towards Mr. Shadow.

“Oh, Necro, it’s you!” Mr. Shadow replied to the man. “It’s been so long since our last Wicked Warlocks reunion, how have you been?”

“Good.” He then looked at Kim. “Is this your daughter? The daughter who isn’t a son?”

“Yeah, she is. Kim, come over and greet Necro.” Kim walked over to Necro.

“Hi Necro,” Kim greeted. “I’m Kim.”

“Yes, yes, Kim. I learned a lot about you from my son Mike. You refused to join the Wicked Warlocks, even though you look the part despite being a girl. If you joined, you would be the leader, despite what the rules say.”

“Necro, Kim can make whatever choice she wants. I personally don’t want her mixed in with those boys. Anyway Necro, what made you come here?”

“When I heard that the leader’s daughter was at the same school as the Wicked Warlocks, I decided to hop on a plane and get here as fast as I could to see you two. Anyway, did I interrupt your duel? Please continue it. I would like to see this duel.”

“Well if you haven’t noticed, Necro, I’m using my Chess Archfiends and Kim is using my old DARK deck, the deck that represents the leader of the Wicked Warlocks. I need to see if she can handle the dark power it possesses like I could despite her not being a sorceress.”

“Oh really? Then I must see this duel!” Necro sat down on the grass as Kim walked back to the other side of the dueling field.

“Okay then. Kim, let’s get back to our duel. I set 2 cards face-down and end my turn.”

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. All monsters, huh? I guess I’ll just have to figure out a plan. Oh wait, I got it! “I send my Darknight Parshath to the Graveyard to Special Summon Dark Grepher.” Dark Grepher appeared with his sword drawn (ATK 1700). “Now I activate his effect, so I can send Dark Horus from my hand to the Graveyard in order to send Darklord Zerato from my deck to my Graveyard. Now since I have exactly 3 DARK monsters in my Graveyard, I can summon Dark Armed Dragon.” Dark Armed Dragon appeared, ready to strike (ATK 2800). “Now I summon Armageddon Knight.” Armageddon Knight appeared on the field (ATK 1400). “With him summoned, I can send Dark Crusader from my deck to the Graveyard. Now I remove Dark Crusader and Darknight Parshath in my Graveyard from play in order to send Dark Nephthys to the Graveyard so that it can be summoned next turn. But enough about the future: let’s start talking about what will happen right now. I activate Dark Armed Dragon’s effect: by removing my Darklord Zerato from the Graveyard, I get to destroy your Shadowknight Archfiend.” Dark Armed Dragon jabbed at the Shadowknight Archfiend, but 6 orbs, each with a number from 1 to 6 appeared. A flame traveled from one ball to the next over and over. “What is this?”

“When an Archfiend monster is targeted by an opponent’s card effect, there’s a chance of failure. In Shadowknight’s case, if the flame lands on the 3, Dark Armed Dragon is destroyed instead. Now just watch.” The flame stopped at the 3 ball. Dark Armed Dragon exploded. “Looks like it landed on 3. Maybe you shouldn’t be so careless next time.”

“Okay, fine. I end my turn.”

“Of course you do. I draw.” Damon/Mr. Shadow drew a card. “Ordinarily I would have to pay 900 Life Points to keep Shadowknight on the field, but thanks to Pandemonium, this is not the case. I summon Terrorking Archfiend.” Terrorking Archfiend appeared (ATK 2000). “Now it’s time to wipe out some Life Points. Shadowknight, attack Dark Grepher.” Shadowknight Archfiend slashed with his arm-sword at Dark Grepher (Kim 7850). “Luckily for you, any damage Shadowknight deals is cut in half. The same can’t be said for Terrorking though. Terrorking, attack!” Terrorking Archfiend slashed with his sword, destroying Armageddon Knight (Kim 7250). “I end my turn.”

“It’s my turn then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. Thanks to Dark Nephthys still being in my Graveyard, it gets summoned to the field.” Dark Nephthys appeared on the field (ATK 2400). “Now I activate its effect, so it destroys a Spell or Trap card you control, and I’ll choose Pandemonium.” Dark Nephthys flapped its wings, sending out a dark wind.

“Not quite. I activate Archfiend Roulette, so I give up half my Life Points.” Damon lost a fourth of his Life Points (Damon 4000). “Now if I send a monster card from my hand to the Graveyard, destroying my card is a game of chance. I send Infernalqueen Archfiend to the Graveyard.” The 6 orbs and the flame appeared again. “Now if the flame stops at anything other than 2, your card is negated and destroyed. Now let’s see the result.” The flame stopped at a 5, destroying Dark Nephthys. “That’s too bad.”

“I’m still not done though. I activate Allure of Darkness, so I draw 2 cards, and if one of them is a DARK monster, I remove it from play. Otherwise, I ditch my entire hand. So let’s see what happens.” Kim drew 2 cards. “I remove my Cyber Ouroboros.” The Cyber Ouroboros was removed from play. Now I draw a card and discard a card.” Kim discarded Shadowpriestess of Ohm. “I set a card and end my turn.”

“It looks like you’re down to your last moves already. I draw.” Damon drew a card. “I’ll also activate Archfiend’s Roar, so I can bring back the Infernalqueen at the cost of 500 Life Points.” Infernalqueen Archfiend appeared (ATK 900) and Damon lost 500 Life Points (Damon 3500). “Now Infernal Queen will power up my Terrorking by 1000 points (ATK 3000).”

“I activate Call of the Haunted, which will bring back Dark Horus.” Dark Horus appeared (ATK 3000).

“I activate my Quick-Play Spell, Archfiend’s Summon Reward. Since you Special Summoned a monster while I control at least 3 different Archfiends, I can draw 2 cards.” Damon drew 2 cards.

“That’s true, but you also let me summon my Armageddon Knight to the field thanks to Dark Horus.” Armageddon Knight appeared crouching down (DEF 1200). “Now with its effect I can send another DARK monster to the Graveyard.” Kim sent Dark Valkyria to the Graveyard.

“Very well, but that still won’t save you from my attack. Terrorking, attack Dark Horus.” Dark Horus breathed dark energy onto the Terrorking, but it was still able to stab Horus in the stomach. “Now I activate Desrook’s effect, so I send Desrook from my hand to the Graveyard to resurrect my Terrorking.” Terrorking Archfiend reappeared (ATK 2000). “Shadowknight, destroy Armageddon Knight.” Shadowknight slashed at the Armageddon Knight, destroying it. “Infernalqueen and Terrorking, attack directly!” Terrorking slashed at Kim with his sword and Infernalqueen shot a laser out of her eyes (Kim 4350). “I set a card and end my turn.” Infernalqueen was destroyed during the End Phase.

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. “I summon Prometheus, King of the Shadows.” Prometheus appeared (ATK 1200). Now I activate its effect, I remove DARK monsters from my Graveyard to increase his ATK by 400 for each one. I choose to remove all of them.” Dark Grepher, Dark Horus, Dark Armed Dragon, Dark Nephthys, Shadow Priestess of Ohm, and Dark Valkyria then appeared behind Prometheus. He absorbed their power (ATK 3600). “Prometheus, attack the King.” Promethus attacked the Terrorking Archfiend with his claw (Damon 1900). “I end my turn.” Promethus lost his power boost (ATK 1200).

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Damon drew a card. “I activate Chess Setup, so I can Special Summon a monster from my deck, but it can’t attack this turn. I choose to summon Vilepawn Archfiend.” Vilepawn Archfiend appeared, but it was very tired (ATK 1200). “Shadowknight, attack the King of Shadows.” The Knight used his arm-sword to destroy the King of Shadows (Kim 3950). “I end my turn.”

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Kim drew a card. “I summon Doomsday Horror.” Doomsday Horror appeared on the field (ATK ?). “It’s ATK points are equal to the number of removed from play DARKs I have. Right now that’s 10, so its ATK points are 3000. Doomsday, attack the Vilepawn.” Doomsday Horror walked over to Vilepawn and punched it right in the stomach, destroying it (Damon 100). “I end my turn.”

“It’s my move then. I draw.” Damon drew a card. “I activate Smashing Ground destroying your Doomsday Horror.” Doomsday Horror exploded.

“You just triggered its ability: it will send all the removed DARK cards back to the Graveyard.”

“Shadowknight Archfiend, attack Kim directly.” The Shadowknight Archfiend slashed at Kim (Kim 2950). “I activate Quick Guard, so my Shadowknight goes to Defense Mode.” Shadowknight crouched down (DEF 1600). “I end my turn.”

“It’s my turn. I draw.” Kim drew her card. “I activate The Beginning of the End, so I remove 5 DARK monsters from my Graveyard to draw 3 cards.” I just hope I can use them. Kim drew 3 cards and looked at them. Perfect! “First I activate Dark Armed Portal. It can only be activated when I have 4 or more DARK monsters in the Graveyard and 2900 or more Life Points. I have to send a DARK monster card from my hand to the Graveyard and pay Life Points until I have only 100 in order to summon Dark Armed Dragon from my hand, Deck, or Graveyard, ignoring the Summoning Conditions.” Kim sent Dark General Freed from her hand to the Graveyard and lost all but 100 Life Points (Kim 100) and Dark Armed Dragon reappeared (ATK 2800). “I also remove the remove the remaining 7 DARK monsters in my Graveyard in order to summon Rainbow Dark Dragon.” Rainbow Dark Dragon appeared (ATK 4000). “Dark Armed Dragon, attack the Shadowknight without using your effect.” Dark Armed Dragon crushed the Shadowknight with his claw. “Rainbow Dark Dragon, end this! Dark Rainbow Refraction!” Rainbow Dark Dragon opened its mouth and a round rainbow appeared. Then a flash of light appeared on the inside of the rainbow and blasted at Damon (Damon 0).

The holograms disappeared. Damon started walking towards Kim. Necro got up and ran over to Damon. “She’s a chip off the old block, isn’t she. I really didn’t expect her to be that good,” Necro commented. Damon just kept walking towards Kim. Kim looked up to see her father smile.

“Very good Kim. You have truly earned that dark deck. However-” Kim then looked down. He knelt down and raised Kim’s chin up a little. He stared directly in Kim’s eyes. “It appears that you have gained one dark power. However, you do not have the ability to control such a power. I can change that though.” Kim looked up. Damon took his deck out of his duel disk and reached his hand into the deck slot. Surprisingly, the duel disk opened up. Damon grabbed a black chain necklace with a black obsidian crystal in the middle of it. He put it around Kim’s neck. The darkness disappeared from Kim and she was back in her old clothes. “That necklace has the power to let you control your darkness and allow you to fall into the shadows and escape from the shadows at will.”

“Awesome! Thank you dad.” Kim hugged her dad, picked up her school bag, and ran off to the main school building. Necro and Damon watched Kim disappear into the building.

“You raised a strange girl, Damon. Does she get into trouble often?”

“You have no idea,” Damon replied. “You said your son talks about Kim. If you don’t mind me asking, what does he say?”

“Well, if you must insist, let’s just say he says stuff that isn’t too flattering. I don’t think it’s too personal though. Your daughter is a dark girl. About 7 years ago, my son lost a card game with a gang of dark girls. These girls then took away his Exodia cards and Orichalcos Shunoros. He’s hated dark girls ever since and dislikes Kim because of that.”

“Sounds like the only thing Kim needs to do is earn his trust.”

“That will be a tough task, especially with Mike’s secret eye.”

“What?”

“Oh, nothing.”

“Whatever. I still think it will be possible for Kim to do it though, even without joining the Wicked Warlocks. Just wait and see.” There was silence for a few seconds. “Also, what else did you come here for, Necro?”

“I came to pass by deck to my son. You know, the Wicked Warlocks’ tradition.”

“It’s only a tradition for the sorcerers because it passes some of the dark power to the son or, in my case, daughter. You aren’t a sorcerer, so passing your deck down wouldn’t do anything.”

“But I still want my strategy to continue to live.”

“Dude, you run zombies. Your strategy was never alive.”

“Actually, it’s-” A bell rings, completely blocking out what Necro said.

Kim heard the bell ring. She got into the classroom just in time. The chancellor walked into the classroom. This time, though, it seemed like he had a lesson plan ready. “Good news class,” the chancellor said proudly. “Your teacher Mr. Saiko is recovering from his accident and should be back within 2 weeks. Until then he has given me the lesson plan. It looks like the first thing is the types of cards.” Kim tuned out. She knew today would be a boring school day.
Boring described the rest of the day as well. At the end of the day, Kim went to bed and started sleeping. A few hours later, though, she was woken up by a light that came from the window.

“Huh?” Kim took out her duel disk and decks and secretly walked out of the building and walked into the main dueling field. She then saw the light coming from a forest. Kim started walked into a forest. Then the light became brighter and Kim blocked her eyes. When she opened her eyes again, she was in a strange portal. “What? What is this?” She then saw Mystery, Hunter, Chris, and Destiny also in this strange portal. “Mystery? Hunter? Chris? Destiny? What’s going on? Where are we, and why?”

“I don’t know,” said Chris. “Destiny led me to a forest with a light in it.” He then looked at Destiny. “I suppose more than one type of Destiny led me there.”

Destiny grabbed Chris’s left hand with both of hers. “Just let destiny guide you and everything will turn out great for us,” she said. She turned toward Kim while still holding Chris’s hand in both of hers. “I, however, have to continue the ever continuing battle of the Arcana Force vs. the Neo-Spacians. For millennia this battle has raged, but it shall end today with my victory.” She then looked around at everybody. “I think we must all need to go to this chaos dimension for a reason.” She then looked at Mystery. “Wait, who are you?”

“My name is Mystery,” the tall fellow dressed all in blue said. “I gave John the Time deck on his birthday, remember?” Destiny nodded.
“Hey Kim, is that boy your new boyfriend?” Chris jokingly asked, pointing to Hunter.

“No, Chris. I barely know him,” Kim replied.

“Anyway, so you all might want to know why we’re all being transported to the chaos dimension,” said Mystery.

“You mean we all have a similar purpose to be in this dimension?” asked Destiny. “How is that possible?”

“Yes,” Mystery replied. “We are all going to a multidimensional intergalactic tournament in which the only way to get there was a multidimensional portal.”

“Really? This so beats school!” replied Kim, quite excited. She then realized something. “Where’s John?”

“I think he’s probably back at Duel Academy,” replied Chris.

“I can figure that much, Chris, but why isn’t he here with us?”

“You only want him here because you love him.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question!”

“I don’t know,” replied Chris. “I haven’t seen him since he went away to the original Duel Academy. Destiny’s parents wouldn’t let her move that far away, so she had to stay close by. Destiny begged me to go to the same Duel Academy as her so that we could always be together, so I did.”

“You felt the same way I did and you know it,” Destiny replied. She then hugged Chris. Hunter and Kim looked at each other, and then they looked back at Chris and Destiny.

“Looks like you two are more than just friends,” said Kim.

“Yeah, we started dating about a week before John’s birthday party,” said Chris. He looked at Kim’s black academy outfit. “Nice outfit Kim. You thinking of coloring in that white stripe on your skirt black?” Kim didn’t bother to respond.

“Oh wait, I forgot to tell you people one important detail!” declared Mystery. “Apparently half the people in this dimension can’t read very well, so a lot of card effects are changed. Be sure to check the new text on your cards.”

“Mystery, how do you know this?” asked Hunter. “While you’re at it, what are you, a boy or a girl?”

“How about I just start at the beginning of my new journey. One day, an alien spaceship crashed near me. An alien got out of the ship and started trying to fix it. After fixing it together, the alien let me join his alien crew on their journey around the galaxies and dimensions. As it turns out, it was an Alien Grey duel spirit and its ship was Flying Saucer Muusik’i. The Alien Grey spirit gave me its card, along with Muusik’i’s card. As I traveled through space and through the dimensions, I found many Alien cards that also joined my crew. Every one of my Aliens has a story, which is why I will never abandon them. I know they feel as close to me as I feel to them, as they are like my family and I am their captain and duelist. As for how I know about this dimension, this is where I found Cosmic Fortress Gol’gar.”

“Cool story bro,” said Hunter. “I don’t really believe you, and you never answered my other question.”

“Oh yeah, the one about whether I’m a boy or a girl. Only the Aliens know that secret.”

Kim walked over to Hunter and whispered in his ear, “Trust me, Mystery uses a really powerful Alien deck. I personally believe Mystery, especially since I saw the space ship and watched him/her duel.” It didn’t take too much longer for them to enter the chaos dimension. They were in a giant building. They appeared in front of a registration center. Mystery looked at the sign-up machine.

“Just say your name and place your ace card on the machine,” said the registration man.

“My name is Mystery,” s/he said as s/he placed Cosmic Fortress Gol’gar on the scanner. The scanner finished its analysis and s/he took Gol’gar off. “Hey everybody, come over here, say your name, and place your ace card on the machine.” Kim, Hunter, Chris, and Destiny walked over to the machine.

“My name is Kim.” She placed Easter Knight on the scanner. The scanner analyzed the card very quickly and Kim took the card off.

“My name is Hunter.” He placed Predatory Beast Rex on the scanner. The scanner analyzed the card and he took it off.

“My name is Chris.” He placed Rainbow Dragon on the scanner. He then took it off when the analysis was done.

“My name is Destiny.” She placed Arcana Force EX – The Light Ruler on the scanner. The scanner analyzed it and Destiny took it off.

“Thank you,” said the registration man. He went off to work on a computer to organize the data. Soon Team Mystery was surrounded by many people.

“Hey, new people!” one said.

“They must be here to help the Chaos boy,” another said.

“The chaos boy?” asked Chris.

“He’s the savior of this world. He protects everybody using his Chaos spirits and is in Team Satellite. You’ll know him when you see him. Anyway, rumor has it that something bad will happen in this tournament and that the Boy of chaos will need help.”

“Sounds like we have to find this Chaos boy,” said Mystery.

“Here we are, everybody to the Duelist Rising Tournament!” yelled a voice on the microphone. “Hosted by the Director of Security Nathan Williams.” The audience cheered. The people surrounding Team Mystery ran to their seats. Team Mystery went to the main duel arena. “Here come our teams now. Wait, who are they in the background?” Kim and the others looked at the other side of the arena. About 10 figures in dark cloaks appeared.

“T-T-They’re the Dark Signers!” yelled a person in the crowd.

“Security! Arrest them!” yelled the announcer. Security surrounded them.

“What business do you have here, Dark Signers?” asked the Director.

“Why, to compete in the tournament, Director Williams,” said one of the Dark Signers.

“Yeah right!” yelled a person in the audience.

“What’s wrong?” said the Dark Signer. “You do have the Signers that saved your city the last time, do you? What better way to make this tournament exciting than to have the original Signers and other recruits do battle with us?” The director looked suspicious, until…

“Why not? Could be fun,” said one of the kids on the same side of the arena as Team Mystery.

“What?!” yelled the people in the stands.

“We defeated them before and we'll do it again,” persisted that kid. The Director looked at the kid, but decided to trust the kid.

“Very well. I’ll allow it.” The Director and the other security left the Dark Signers alone.

“It looks like the Dark Signers are in,” yelled the announcer. “Now allow me to introduce the teams competing in this tournament. Here we have the people from one of our created Field Spell dimensions, please welcome Team Ultimate Kingdom.” A group of people dressed in white appeared and everyone cheered. “And here we have a team visiting from another dimension not in the Duel Monster Realm, give it up for Team Mystery.” Team Mystery stepped forward. “The names of the teammates are Mystery, Kim Shadow, Hunter, Destiny and Chris.” The crowd cheered again. “Next, we have the saviors of Neo Domino, along with others who are courageous enough to help them. Although they didn't name their team what they are, but give it up for Team Satellite!” A big group emerged. “Here are the names: Nick Cunningham, the Boy of Chaos himself. Rein Kuro, Alice Daniels, Cody Batey, Rachel Sharpton, Link, Haou, Yusei Fudo, Jack Atlas, Crow, Akiza Izinski, and the twins Leo & Luna!” The crowd cheered so loud that many people found themselves out of breath afterward. “And our last minute entries and also the ones whose idols almost destroyed the city, give a shout out to Team Dark Signer!” The crowd booed this time. “Here are the names: Alex, Alexander, Mark, another person named Chris, Wiraq, Clara, Peter, Tarik, Caleb, and Makayla Sharpton.” The face of the kid who let the Dark Signer compete went completely blank upon hear those names. The face of another girl in the group went blank when she heard the last name. They ended up in a huge conversation. Mystery led the gang to where Team Satellite was. Team Satellite then stopped talking and look toward Team Mystery.

“Hello,” said Kim. “I’m Kim Shadow.”

A girl stepped forward. “Nice to meet you,” said that girl. “I’m Alice, and I heard you came from a dimension not from the Duel Monster Realm.”

“I do,” said Kim. “Before I arrived here, I was following a strange light and it led me to a clearing in the forest. That's when I met up with Hunter and Mystery.”

A boy other than the boy who let the Dark Signers compete looked at Mystery. “So are you a boy or a girl or what? Help me out here,” that boy said.

“Cody!” the first boy said.

“What? I just want to know.”

“We're not really sure what Mystery is, but Mystery is good,” Kim replied. “Destiny and Chris are friends from my old school before I moved. They also walked into a forest with a light, right?” They nodded, as did Hunter.

Something then clicked in Chris’s mind. “When we got here, I heard a big deal out of you Mr. Boy of Chaos,” Chris said to the boy who let the Dark Signers compete in the tournament. “Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Chris Anderson.”

“Anderson, huh?” the boy of chaos said. He then saw the Crystal Beast Ruby Carbuncle on Chris’s shoulder. “Then you must be related to Jesse Anderson. On account of Ruby Carbuncle being on your shoulder.”

“Lucky guess. Anyways, I heard you're pretty good with those Chaos Spirit cards you have. I can't wait to Duel you, but I have bigger problems.”

“I know,” the Boy of Chaos said, looking up at the list of duels. “I saw on the board that you'll be facing the leader of the Dark Signer team, Wiraq. Oh yeah, you can call me Nick.”

“Attention, first round competitors. Please come to the Duel Arena and take your places.” The first two to duel were Alice and Kim.

“Well, come on,” said Alice as she grabbed Kim’s hand and rushed off.

“Whoa. Right,” Kim said as she followed Alice. They arrived outside to the Duel Arena, took their positions, and readied their Duel Disks.

“Good luck,” said Kim.

“You too,” said Alice.

“We’ll decide who goes first with a coin toss,” the announcer yelled. “Choose which side.”

“Heads,” said Kim.

“Tails,” said Alice. The announcer flips the coin. It landed on tails.

“And it’s tails, so Alice goes first!” yells the announcer. “Now, Duel, start!”

“I draw.” Alice drew a card. “I play a Field Spell Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” A forest surrounded them and two trees with a “Scavenger Hunt” banner between them appeared.

No way. Does she have-

“I summon Easter Egg Scouter.” A man with an egg-shaped head and a pink bandanna appeared (ATK 1600).

She does!

“Now I activate his effect, so once per turn I can add 1 Easter Egg Continuous Spell from my deck to my hand, so I add Easter Egg 5 to my hand. Now I activate Easter Eggs 1, 2, 3, and 10.” 4 eggs appeared, each with a different number on it. “Easter Egg 1 increases my Life Points by 500.” The egg with the 1 on it turned gray and Alice’s Life Points increased (Alice 8500). “Easter Egg 2 decreases your Life Points by 500.” The egg turned gray as Kim’s life points decreased (Kim 7500). “Easter Egg 3 lets me draw a card.” Alice drew a card. “And Easter Egg 10 lets me summon a Level 3 or higher monster from my hand you can summon a Level 2 or lower monster from your deck, so I summon Dragon of the Many Eggs.” A green dragon with blue wings and pink claws appeared (ATK 2100).

“I Special Summon Easter Egg Protector.” A small dragon with an egg in its claw appeared (ATK 800, Tuner).

“Wait a minute, so I’m not the only one who uses this deck?”

“I've had this Deck ever since I was a kid. At first, I thought this Deck was worthless, but there was one person who proved me otherwise. I'll never forget him.”

“I glad to hear that. Now I play 1 card face-down and end my turn.”

“Well this is a twist,” said the announcer. “It seems like both competitors are using the same Deck. Good thing nothing in the rulebook says you can't Duel with the same Deck. Let's see how this plays out.”

“I draw,” said Kim. “I summon Easter Bunny.” A small green and blue bunny appears out of the forest (ATK 500). “Now I'm tuning my Easter Egg Protector (Level 2) with my Easter Bunny (Level 3) to Synchro Summon Guardian of the Easter Eggs.” A giant green dragon with blue claws with an Easter Egg in its hand appears (ATK 2400).

I have him, but I never used him in a Duel before.

“Next I play Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 cards.” Wait a minute, since when did I have Pot of Greed in my deck? Kim drew 2 cards. Wow, I got another one. I guess these people don’t really have a banlist. “Now I play another Pot of Greed, so I draw another 2 cards.” Kim drew 2 more cards. “Now I play the Continuous Spell Split Field. While this card is on the field, we can have two field spells activated at the same time, so I play my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt.” Another two trees with a “Scavenger Hunt” banner appeared. “Now I play Easter Eggs 1, 2, and 7.” 3 eggs appeared in front of Kim. “Easter Egg 1 gives me 500 Life Points.” Kim recovered the life points she lost (Kim 8000). “Easter Egg 2 lets you lose 500 Life Points.” Alice lost the life she had gained (Alice 8000). “And Easter Egg 7 destroys a monster you control, so Dragon of the Many Eggs is destroyed.” The green dragon with blue wings exploded. All 3 eggs turned gray.

Wow. She's really good with this Deck. It's only a matter of time before she summon her ace.

“Next I play Egg Draw, so I can draw cards from my Deck equal to the number of "Easter Egg" or "Bad Egg" Continuous Spells on the field, so I draw 3 cards.” Kim drew 3 cards. Now Guardian of the Easter Eggs, destroy her Easter Egg Scouter.” The green dragon walked over to the man with the bandanna.

“I activate the trap Easter Mine,” Alice yelled. “When this card is activated, I can remove a number of "Easter Egg" Continuous Spells from my field from play and inflict 500 points of damage to you for each one and they're treated as being removed from play by "Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt", so I remove all of them and inflict 2000 points of damage to you.” The eggs flew toward Kim and exploded (Kim 6000).

“But your Easter Egg Scouter is still destroyed.” The giant green dragon slashed at the man with the bandanna (Alice 7200). “I play 2 cards face-down and end my turn.” She really knows her way around the "Easter Egg" cards. And since she removed 4 "Easter Egg" Continuous Spells, it won't be long until she summons Easter Knight.

“I draw.” Alice drew a card. “I activate the effects of Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt, so I can activate Easter Egg 7 from my deck, so I can destroy your Guardian of the Easter Eggs.” A green and blue egg with a pink 7 appeared. It turned gray and one of Kim’s Easter Eggs exploded.

“I activate the effect of Guardian of the Easter Eggs: if he would be destroyed, I can send an "Easter Egg" Continuous Spell I control to the Graveyard to prevent him from being destroyed.”

“Now I play Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 cards.” Alice drew 2 cards. “Now I play Easter Egg 5.” A green and blue egg with a pink 5 appeared. “I pay 1500 Life Points to draw 2 cards.” Alice drew 2 cards as her Life Points decreased (Alice 5700). “Now I activate the second effect of my Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt, so I remove Easter Egg 5 from play.” The egg with the 5 disappeared. “Now I Special Summon the ace of my Deck. Come forth, Easter Knight.” A man in a blue and green suit and a green-bladed sword with a blue hilt appeared (ATK 2400).

So it's a man Easter Knight. Much different from mine.

“Now I play the spell Knight Upgrade. When this card is activated, I can select 1 Easter Knight or Rotten Knight I control and I can equip a monster written in the text of the selected monster to the selected monster from my hand, Deck, or Graveyard, so I equip him with Easter Dragon from my deck.” A big dragon’s claws appeared on the blade of the knight’s sword. “And next I equip him with Easter Egg Scepter, which gives him an extra 1000 ATK.” The armored man’s sword was replaced with a green scepter with a blue orb at the end (ATK 3400). A dragon’s claws then protruded from the orb in front of it. “And I activate the second effect of my Easter Egg Scepter: once per turn, I can activate the effect of an “Easter Egg” Continuous Spell that is removed from play, so I choose Easter Egg 2, so you lose another 500 Life Points.” The orb showed a 2 and Kim lost Life Points (Kim 5500). “Now Easter Knight, destroy her Guardian of the Easter Eggs.” The scepter released a magical blast.

“I activate Preparations for Easter: when this card is activated, I can remove 3 "Easter Egg" Continuous Spells from my Deck from play and remove 2 "Easter Egg" Continuous Spells I control from play and I can add my Easter Knight from my Deck to my hand.” The two remaining eggs on Kim’s field disappeared. “Next, I activate the Continuous Trap Egg Barrier: when this card is activated, I can place Egg Counter(s) on this card equal to the number of "Easter Egg" or "Bad Egg" Continuous Spells removed from play, so that's 5.” A wall with 5 eggs on it appeared (EC: 5). “And by removing 1 Egg Counter, I can negate your attack.” One of the eggs blocked the blast (EC: 4).

“In that case, I activate one of my friend’s spells called Level Draw: by paying 500 LP, I can select 1 monster on my field and I can draw cards equal to half the level of the selected monster, so I select Easter Knight, so I draw 3 cards.” Alice lost Life Points while she drew 3 cards (Alice 5200). “I play 2 cards face-down and end my turn.”

“I draw.” Kim drew a card.

“I activate the trap Easter Tornado: when this card is activated, I can destroy a number of Spell or Trap Cards on the field equal to the number of "Easter Egg" Continuous Spells I control, so I destroy your Egg Barrier.” A tornado destroyed the wall.

“Alright. Now I Special Summon my Easter Knight.” A woman in blue and green armor and a blue-bladed sword and a green hilt appeared (ATK 2400).

A girl Easter Knight? This could get interesting.

“Now, I equip her with Easter Egg Scepter, which gives her an extra 1000 ATK.” A blue scepter with a green orb replaced the female knight’s sword (ATK 3400). “Now I activate the effect of Easter Egg Scepter, which lets me activate the effect of Easter Egg 7, so I can destroy your Easter Knight.” The orb showed a 7.

“I activate the Quick-Play Spell Quick Trap: with this card, I can activate a trap card from my Deck, so I activate the trap Protection Egg: when this card is activated, I can select 1 Easter Knight or “Easter” Dragon-type monster I control and the selected “Easter” monster cannot be destroyed by card effects.” An egg appeared in front of the male knight and the egg exploded instead. “Now I activate my Knight Upgrade spell card, so I equip Easter Ancient Dragon to Easter Knight.” A giant dragon’s bones covered the blue part of the female knight’s scepter. “You wanna go at the same time?”

“You bet.”

“On 3. 1, 2, 3.”

“Easter Knight, attack her Easter Knight. Scepter Flash!” they yelled at the same time. The two knights shot their magical blasts at the same time. The two explosion collided and covered the whole field in smoke.

“It looks like we got a winner, folks,” said the announcer. “And it’s…” He checked the score: Kim and Alice were both at 0. “A tie?”

“But how?” asked Alice. "We were never close to losing all of our Life Points."

"That's why I activated this card," said Alice as she showed Kim a card by the name of Collision Course.

“Collision Course?” asked Kim.

“When this card is activated, if 2 monsters with the same ATK power are attacked, we both take damage equal to the combined amount of ATK,” said Alice.

“Where did you get it?”

“I was just like you. Thinking that my cards are worthless,” said Alice. “But then I found someone who acknowledged my cards and me. And we became good friends. He's a special person to me. And I bet the guy who helped you is special, too. Isn't he, Kim?”

Kim remembered John and smiled. “Yeah, he is.”

“Well, it looks like neither of our competitors will be advancing,” said the announcer. “We'll now move on to our next Duel. Chris Anderson vs. Wiraq. In about 10 minutes.” Kim and Alice ran into the hallway and ran into Nick and Chris.

“Alice,” said Nick. “Both of you were great out there. You really gave it your all.” Alice ran over and hugged Nick. “Alice.”

“Look who's the chick magnet on their team.” said Chris.

“Shut up.” said Nick.

That must be the special boy Alice was referring to, Kim thought. He and Alice remind me of John and me. She then felt a surge of energy flow through her. She closed her eyes and opened them again. Her eyes glowed purple for a second, but nobody seemed to notice. She saw a huge chaotic aura around Nick. I can sense a strong aura around this kid. He must be the Boy of Chaos, the Savior of this chaos dimension, this Duel Monsters Realm. But wait, when could I sense auras? Does this mean I can use some powers even when I’m not shrouded by darkness? “Nick, before when you heard the names of those Dark Signers, you looked as though they were important to you.”

“That’s because all of them except for Wiraq are my old classmates. One of them is my friend Rachel’s sister. I need to free them from the Dark Signers.”

“Wow, that’s bad,” replied Kim. The rest of the 10 minutes flew by.

“Alright, here I go,” said Chris. “Wish me luck.”

“Here we are at the second round,” said the announcer. “Chris Anderson vs. the leader of the Dark Signers, Wiraq. Ready…”

“I resign from the competition,” said Wiraq. Everybody was baffled.

“What the…” one of the audience members yelled.

“Well, um, it looks like the winner is Chris Anderson by default,” said the announcer as Wiraq and Chris walked off stage.

“That was weird,” said Nick.

“Yeah,” said Chris.

“I guess we'll move on to our next match. Nick Cunningham vs. Tarik,” said the announcer. Nick walked on stage, as did one of the Dark Signers. “Are we both ready?”

“Yeah!” yelled Tarik.

“Right,” said Nick. Tarik! I will free you from the Dark Signers!

“Duel…start!”

“Let’s duel!” yelled Nick and Tarik.

Both duelists drew 5 cards. “I’ll start this duel off! I draw!” yelled Nick as he drew another card. “I summon Zeo-Nexus the Chaos Warrior.” An all-colored version of Elemental Hero Neos Alius appeared (ATK 1900). “And I equip him with Chaos Sword, givng him an extra 1000 ATK.” A sword with all different colors of plasma around it appeared (ATK 2900). “Now I play the field spell Chaos Realm, so he gains another 1000 ATK and DEF.” A world that looked like a darker Neo Space appeared (ATK 3900). “I place 2 cards face-down and end my turn.”

“I draw,” said Tarik as he drew a card. “I activate the Continuous Spell Wandering Graveyard.” 42 very small tombstones appeared. They were grouped in twos. “Once per turn I can send all “Wandering Soul” monsters from my Deck to your Graveyard, so I send 42 cards.”

“42!?” A bunch of spirits flew out of Tarik’s deck and into the tombstones.

“Next I play the Continuous Spell Vengeful Lost Soul Crypt.” Another 21 bigger tombstones appeared. Each tombstone was grouped with 2 of the smaller ones. “Once per turn I can send all “Vengeful Lost Soul” monsters from my Deck and Extra Deck to the Graveyard, so I send all 21 of them to the Graveyard.” The spirits flew into the Graveyard.

“21!? Why are you shortening your deck?”

And why doesn’t he have close to 0 cards in his deck? Kim thought. Does this mean duelists here can have more than 60 cards in their deck?

“This is how I play,” said Tarik.

“Huh?”

“You see, my "Vengeful Lost Soul" monsters ... can only be Normal Summoned, Set, or Special Summoned from my Graveyard and only my Graveyard. They can't be Normal Summoned, Set, or Special Summoned from my Deck. Only my Graveyard.”

“And I thought I was the only one to deal with spirits. Question is, how are you going to Normal Summon them or Set them?”

“I don't need to Normal Summon or Set them. Now that I can Special Summon them.”

“How are you going to do that?”

“You remember those “Wandering Soul” cards I sent to your Graveyard?”

“Wait, so you can-”

“By removing 1 Rock-Type "Wandering Soul" monster from your Graveyard from play, I Special Summon Vengeful Lost Soul Sphinx.” A spirit in the graveyard disappeared and a shadowy figure of a sphinx appeared (ATK 600). “Now I activate its effect, once per turn, while this card is face-up on the field, I can return 1 monster on the field to its owner's hand, so I return Zeo-Nexus the Chaos Warrior.”

“I activate the trap Disarmment. When this card is activated, I can select 1 monster equipped with an Equip Spell and I can return the Equip Spell from the field to my hand, so I return Chaos Sword to my hand. And thanks to your "Sphinx"(s) effect, so does Zeo-Nexus the Chaos Warrior.” The sphinx roared and the sword and warrior disappeared.

“Now by removing 1 Insect-Type and 1 Sea Serpent-Type from your Graveyard, I Special Summon Vengeful Lost Soul Dragonfly and Vengeful Lost Soul Ryujin, and by removing 1 Beast-Type and 1 Plant-Type from your Graveyard, I Special Summon Vengeful Lost Soul Behemoth and Vengeful Lost Soul Venus Fly Trap.” 4 more small spirits disappeared and, out of the shadows came figures of a giant dragonfly (ATK 2100), a sea dragon (ATK 2100), a giant bull (ATK 2500), and a small Venus fly trap (ATK 300).

Dang! There must be an army of them in his Graveyard, both Kim and Nick thought.

“Unfortunately, I don't have the monster I need to summon right now, but this direct attack might help. I attack you directly with all of my Vengeful Lost Souls.” The sphinx walked over to Nick, the dragonfly flew over to him, the bull charged at him, the sea dragon swam over to it using the shadows as water, and the Venus fly trap disappeared into the shadows and looked like it was about to reform around Nick.

“I activate the trap Cut in Half, which means I take half the damage this turn.” As it turns out, the Venus fly trap has reformed on Nick’s hand. Nick could feel it poking through his skin and sucking out some of the nutrients. Then the bull rammed into Nick with his horns, the dragonfly whacked Nick with his tail, the sea dragon jumped out of the shadows and knocked Nick down by slamming into him headfirst, and the Sphinx stepped on Nick (Nick 4200). When Nick got up again, all the monsters were back where they were before the attacks.

“I play 1 card face-down and end my turn.”

“My turn. I draw.” Nick drew a card. “I summon Zeo-Nexus the Chaos Warrior.” Once again, the multicolored Neos Alius appeared (ATK 1900). “Now I activate his effect, by tributing him, I can Special Summon Zeo the Chaos Warrior.” A multicolored version of Neos appeared (ATK 2500). “Now I equip Zeo with Chaos Sword, which gives him an extra 1000 ATK.” The blue-green sword appeared (ATK 3500). “And since Chaos Realm is on the field, he gains 1000 ATK and DEF.” The field shimmered and Zeo became more powerful (ATK 4500). “Next I play Level Draw, so I pay 500 Life Points and I draw cards equal to half the level of 1 monster I select on the field, so I choose your Vengeful Lost Soul Behemoth, so I draw 4 cards.” Nick lost Life Points (Nick 3700) as he drew 4 cards. “Now I equip Zeo Strike to Zeo, so he gains 800 ATK.” Zeo’s body started glowing white a little bit (ATK 5300). Now Zeo the Chaos Warrior, destroy his Vengeful Lost Soul Sphinx, but first I activate Mystical Space Typhoon, so I destroy your face-down.” A tornado appeared, destroying Tarik’s face-down card. Zeo jumped up in the air. “Now Zeo’s effect activates: when he attacks, he gains 500 ATK during damage calculation.” Zeo’s body started glowing white a little more (ATK 5800). Zeo karate-chopped the sphinx (Tarik 2800).

“Now I activate the effect of my Vengeful Lost Soul Sphinx. Rather than have it go to the Graveyard, I can remove it from play instead, so your Zeo Strike won’t work.” The sphinx disappeared and Zeo jumped back to his original position.

“Dang. I play 1 card face-down and end my turn. During the End Phase Zeo Strike was used, it returns to my Deck and I shuffle it, so Zeo’s ATK go down.” Zeo’s body stopped glowing (ATK 4500).

“I draw!” Tarik smirked, which means he drew the card he needed. “By removing 1 Winged Beast-type from your Graveyard, I Special Summon Vengeful Lost Soul Condor.” Another spirit in the graveyard disappeared and a shadowy figure of a bird with huge wings appeared (ATK 2400). “Now is the time to summon him.”

I wasn’t quite ready for this! thought Nick. But what could it be? Wait, Lost Souls, Vengeful Souls, the only thing that captures them is … Oh no.

“I tribute all 5 of my "Vengeful Lost Soul” monsters and Special Summon your doom! Come forth! The Grim Reaper – Soul Collector.” The grim reaper appeared (ATK 4000).

The Grim Reaper himself.

“Now I activate his effect, when he's summoned, all "Vengeful Lost Soul" monsters I control, have removed from play, in my hand, and in my Graveyard are returned to my Deck.” All the Vengeful Lost Soul spirits returned to the deck. Next I play the Quick-Play Spell Mystical Space Typhoon, so your Chaos Realm is destroyed, so Zeo loses 1000 ATK and DEF.” The tornado sucked up the entire Neo Space-like world they were in (ATK 3500). “Now I activate the effect of Vengeful Lost Soul Crypt, so all my Vengeful Lost Soul cards go back to the Graveyard.” Tons of spirits flew into the Graveyard. “Now I remove another Winged Beast-type from your Graveyard to summon back my Vengeful Lost Soul Condor.” Another spirit from the Graveyard disappeared and the giant bird came back (ATK 2400). Now, Grim Reaper, attack Zeo.” The Grim Reaper slashed at Zeo with his scythe (Nick 3200). Now I activate the effect of The Grim Reaper - Soul Collector, when a monster is destroyed in battle, I can remove from play “Vengeful Lost Soul” monsters equal to the level of the destroyed monster, so I remove 7.” 7 spirits disappeared from the crypt.

“Hold on. I activate the effect of Chaos Sword: when it has been sent to the Graveyard along with the equipped monster, I can return it to my hand and Special Summon the equipped monster back to the field and I can re-equip this card to the Special Summoned monster, but before I do that, I activate the trap Chaos Signal.” A light with a C inside it appeared. “When this card is activated, if a monster I control was destroyed and sent to the Graveyard by battle, I can Special Summon 1 LV4 or lower "Chaos Spirit" monster from my hand or Deck, so I Special Summon Chaos Spirit Searon.” A humanoid spirit with a body made of flames and with black, broken up armor with a blue orb in the center of its chest and a different shaped skull for a head appeared (ATK 600). “And I Special Summon back Zeo the Chaos Warrior and re-equip him with Chaos Sword, giving him an extra 1000 ATK.” Zeo appeared on the field again with the sword (ATK 3500).

“Now Vengeful Lost Soul Condor, destroy his Zeo the Chaos Warrior.” The bird flew over to Zeo.

“That's insane. Why would you-”

“I activate the Quick-Play Spell Vengeful Strike. When this card is activated, if a "Vengeful Lost Soul" monster I control attacks a monster with higher ATK, I can increase its ATK by the ATK of the attack target.” The bird’s beak grew much bigger (ATK 5900). The bird pecked at Zeo (Nick 800). “Now the Grim Reaper’s effect activates again, so I remove 7 more.” Another 7 spirits disappeared.

“I activate the effect of Chaos Sword one more time. Come on back! Zeo the Chaos Warrior.” Once again, the multicolored Neos appeared again with his sword (ATK 3500).

“Now I activate the effect of Vengeful Lost Soul Condor, when it inflicts Battle Damage to my opponent, I can return 1 Spell or Trap card on the field to its owner's hand, so I return your Chaos Sword to your hand." The bird created a gust of wind which blew the sword away. The card reappeared in Nick's hand. "I end my turn."

The crowd went silent as they saw their savior horribly beaten down.

"It looks like Nick is in trouble folks," said the announcer. "It all comes down to his last draw."

Nick reached for the top card of his deck.

Come on, Nick. If you're anything like John, you should have the power to still fight, thought Kim.

Tarik, thought Nick. I'm sorry I couldn't protect you and the others. It's because of me that you're like this. That's why I've come to set things right. I'll free you, Peter, and Caleb. "I draw!" yelled Nick as he drew his card. And this is the last card I need to do just that. "I summon Chaos Spirit Landcaron." A humanoid spirit with a body made of dust and dirt and with black, broken up armor with a blue orb in the center of its chest and a different shaped skull for a head appeared (ATK 900). Now "Zeo The Chaos Warrior", "Chaos Spirit Searon", and "Chaos Spirit Landcaron" use "Triple Cross Fusion" to summon "Zeo The Erupting Chaos Warrior". The two spirits flew up in the air, along with Zeo The Chaos Warrior, and were sucked into the orb in Zeo's chest and Zeo's body transformed with his chest and wings looking like cracked edges of a volcano with lava flowing through them (ATK 3000).

A Contact Fusion?! thought Kim. No wonder he's called the savior of this dimension.

"Now I activate his effect," said Nick. "He gains 400 ATK for every card in both of our Graveyards. Oh. And thanks for putting all those "Wandering Soul" monsters in my Graveyard."

"NO!" yelled Tarik.

"So Zeo's ATK go all the way up to..." said Nick. A tornado of fire blazed around Zeo, thereby powering him up (ATK 21800).

"Unreal!" yelled Tarik.

Unreal is right, thought Kim. I've never seen anyone get a monsters ATK go that high.

"That's impossible!" yelled Tarik.

"Well guess what... IT'S POSSIBLE!!" yelled Nick as he was about to attack. "Zeo The Erupting Chaos Warrior attack The Grim Reaper - Soul Collector and END THIS!!" Zeo made a giant meteor of flames in his hands and threw it at the grim reaper, then the grim reaper was burned alive and fell on Tarik screamed...

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!" screamed Tarik as his Life points went to 0 (Tarik 0).

"We have a winner!" yelled the announcer. "Nick Cunningham!"

The crowd roared with excitement as Nick won. Nick then ran to Tarik.

"Tarik," said Nick. "Are you okay?"


"Nick?" said Tarik as he was getting up. "Where are we?"

"Let's just say we're on a long, long vacation," said Nick.

Nick led Tarik to a resting room. “Alright! That last Duel was intense, but we always knew he would make it. Right?!” said the announcer. The audience gave a round of applause for Nick. “Okay. Let's move forward with our fourth round, Cody Batey versus the mysterious girl Destiny.”

“Yes!” yelled Cody. “Wish me luck out there. May the best person win, Destiny.”

Destiny’s face looked blank, her eyes distant. “You will lose,” she said.

“What?”

“I have predicted the entire Duel. And the result is your defeat.”

“Oh yeah? We'll see about that.” They walked onto the duel arena.

“Chris, what kind of deck does Destiny run anyway? Do you really think she will definitely win?” asked Nick.

“I know she’ll win. Trust me, her Arcana Force deck cannot be beaten,” replied Chris.

“Arcana Force?” asked Nick as his eyes grew wider. “Oh shoot.”

“What is it?”

“Well, you see, here in the Duel Monster Realm, the Arcanas and the Neo-Spacians have been fighting for years. And if what think is going to happen, this Duel is not just a battle. It's gonna turn into an all-out war.” Dark clouds appeared above the dueling arena.

“Alright! Duel … start!” yelled the announcer. Destiny and Cody drew 5 cards.

“I’ll go first,” said Cody. “I draw.” He drew a card. “I summon Elemental Hero Neos Alius.” Neos Alius appeared (ATK 1900). “Next I play Triple Summon, so, since I already Normal Summoned this turn, I can add in 2 more Normal Summons, so I second summon Neos Alius.” Elemental Hero Neos Alius started to sparkle. “Thanks to his effect, his name is treated as "Elemental Hero Neos". Next, I summon Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab.” Neo-Spacian Flare Scarab appeared (ATK 500). Now Neos and Flare Scarab use Contact Fusion to summon Elemental Hero Flare Neos.” Elemental Hero Flare Neos appeared (ATK 2500).

Does everybody in this universe use Contact Fusion cards? thought Kim.

“Now I play the Field Spell Galaxy Space, which gives Neos an extra 500 ATK and DEF.” The area around them changed to a world like Neo-Space, except it had stars in it (ATK 3000). “And thanks to his effect, Neos gains 400 ATK and DEF for every Spell or Trap Card on the field. I place two cards face-down and end my turn.” Neos’s power rose (ATK 4200).

I suppose Galaxy Space also stops the Neos fusions from leaving the field.

“I draw!” yelled Destiny as she drew a card. Neo-Spacians, huh? I guess this duel will end just as I predicted. “I play the Continuous Spell Split Field, so we can both activate our Field Spells. Next I play the Field Spell Light Barrier.” The area around them became more alluminated.

“Both those cards power up Neos.” Neos’s power rose (ATK 5000).

“Now I summon Arcana Force VI – The Lovers.” Arcana Force VI – The Lovers appeared on the field (ATK 1600). “Now Light Barrier activates, letting me decide the effect of my Lovers, so I choose the Heads effect: he can be treated as 2 Tributes for Tribute Summoning an "Arcana Force" monster.” The card appeared right-side up above the Lovers. “Now I play the spell Double Summon, so I tribute The Lovers, which counts as 2 Tributes, to summon Arcana Force XV – The Fiend.” Arcana Force XV – The Fiend appeared (ATK 2500). Its card appeared right-side up above it. “I choose the Heads effect. Now Arcana Force XV – The Fiend attack his Elemental Hero Flare Neos.”

“How come? You're only gonna destroy your monster.”

“It’s because of my Fiend’s heads effect: when it attacks, I can select 1 monster on the field and the selected monster is destroyed. I choose your Neos.” The Fiend whipped Neos, destroying it. “Which means I can proceed with a direct attack!”

“I activate the trap Neo - Signal. Since a monster I control was destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, I can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Neo-Spacian” monster from my deck, so I summon Neo-Spacian Crasher Dino.” A small dinosaur appeared (ATK 800). “Galaxy Space gives my dinosaur an extra 500 ATK and DEF.” The dinosaur received a small power boost (ATK 1300).

This Neo-Spacian wasn’t in my prediction, but it won’t matter. “Then I attack your Crasher Dino. Since my Fiend is attacking again, it can destroy your Neo-Spacian Crasher Dino.” The Fiend moved its whip toward the dinosaur.

“I don’t think so. I activate my other face-down: my quick-play spell Galaxy Mirage. This card can be activated if a "Neo-Spacian" monster I control is targeted by a card effect. I can switch the target with another card on the field, so I choose your Arcana Force XV - The Fiend.” The dinosaur disappeared and it was replaced by the Fiend. The Fiend was destroyed and the dinosaur reappeared.

Impossible. This is not what I foresaw. “I play 1 card face-down and end my turn.”

“I draw,” Cody yelled as he drew a card. “I play the spell Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 cards.” Cody drew 2 cards. “Now I play another Pot of Greed, so I draw another 2 cards.” Cody drew another 2 cards. “Now I play the Continuous Spell Future Fusion, so I send Elemental Hero Neos and 6 “Neo-Spacian” monsters from my Deck and send them to the Graveyard, and in 2 turns, I can Fusion Summon Elemental Hero Divine Neos.” The 6 Neo-Spacians and Elemental Hero Neos came out of the deck and Cody sent them to the Graveyard.

“So what? I've already predicted the Duel. You will lose.”

“But why stop there? I activate the spell Miracle Fusion: when this card is activated, I can remove from play Fusion Material Monsters that are listed on an “Elemental Hero” Fusion Monster and Special Summon it, so I remove from play “Elemental Hero Neos” and the 6 “Neo-Spacian” monsters to Fusion Summon Elemental Hero Divine Neos.” A small portal appeared on the ground. Neos and the Neo-Spacians flew into the portal and a light beam rose. When it disappeared, Elemental Hero Divine Neos was there (ATK 2500). “And thanks to Galaxy Space, he gains an extra 500 ATK and DEF.” Neos received a small amount of power from the field (ATK 3000). “Next I summon Elemental Hero S. Neos Alius.” A more vibrantly-colored, sparkling version of Elemental Hero Neos Alius appeared (ATK 1900). Now Elemental Hero S. Neos Alius attack her attack her directly!” S. Neos Alius flew forward towards Destiny.

“I activate the trap Rebirth of the Arcana. When this card is activated, I can select 1 “Arcana Force” monster in my Graveyard and Special Summon Arcana Tokens to my field in Defense Position, so I choose Arcana Force VI – The Lovers, so I Special Summon 4 Arcana Tokens.” 4 small moon monsters appeared (DEF 0).

“So what? S. Neos Alius attack the Arcana Token.” S. Neos Alius attacked the token, but nothing happened. “Huh? How come it wasn't destroyed?”

“Arcana Tokens cannot be destroyed by battle on the turn they were Special Summoned.”

Great. “I play 1 card face-down and end my turn.” It started raining above them and lightning appeared from the clouds. The audience went to the hallways of the Kaibadome to watch from there. Cody and Destiny, however, stayed in the dueling arena. “This rain doesn't bother me. And it won't stop me from giving up, too.”

“Same here. My turn. I draw.” Destiny drew a card. “Now, since it’s my Standby Phase, my Light Barrier kicks in, so I flip a coin.” A big virtual coin appeared and was flipped. It landed on tails. Destiny looked at her Light Barrier card as it turned face-down above her. “It appears that, in this dimension, since the result was tails, your monster effects are negated until my next Standby Phase. Now I play the spell Cup of Ace, so I flip a coin.” A giant virtual coin was flipped and landed with the Heads result. “And it’s Heads, so I draw 2 cards.” Destiny drew 2 cards. “Now I play another Cup of Ace, so I flip a coin.” A giant virtual coin was flipped and landed with the Heads result. “And it’s Heads again, so I draw another 2 cards.” Destiny drew 2 cards. “Now I play Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 cards.” Destiny drew 2 cards. “Now I summon another Arcana Force VI – The Lovers.” Arcana Force VI – The Lovers appeared on the field (ATK 1600). “Now I activate the other effect of Light Barrier, so I choose the result of the coin flip, so I choose Heads.” The Lovers’s card appeared right-side up. “Now by tributing 3 of my Arcana Tokens, I Special Summon Arcana Force EX - The Light Ruler.” 3 of the moon creatures disappeared and were replaced with Arcana Force EX – The Light Ruler (ATK 4000). “Since I summoned another Arcana Force monster, I get to choose its effect, so I’ll choose Heads.” The card appeared right-side up. “Now I count the Lovers as 2 Tributes and I tribute my last Token to summon Arcana force EX – The Dark Ruler.” The two arms separated from The Lovers, destroying the body, but being two separate entities. Then the remaining moon creature and the two arms disappeared and Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler appeared (ATK 4000).

“Two Rulers in one turn!?”

“I guess you can say I'm just lucky. Or not. You could also say its destiny. Now I can choose its Heads effect.” The card appeared right-side up above the Dark Ruler. “Now all is in place for your defeat. Now Light Ruler, destroy the Crasher Dino.” The Light Ruler grew 2 dragon heads that released a light blast from their mouths.

“I activate the trap Neo-Spacian Guard: when this card is activated, by sending a number of “Neo-Spacian” monsters to my Graveyard, None of the monsters I control of the same number of “Neo-Spacian” monsters I sent to the Graveyard are destroyed as a result, so I send 3 “Neo-Spacian” monsters to my Graveyard.” 3 Neo-Spacians from the deck formed 3 walls in front of the dinosaur. One shattered (Cody 5300).

“You still take the damage though. Now Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler attack Neo-Spacian Crasher Dino.” The Dark Ruler grew 2 dragon heads that released a dark blast from their mouths. Another shield disappeared (Cody 2600). And thanks to the Dark Ruler’s Heads effect, it can attack twice, so it’s over. Now, Dark Ruler, END THIS!!” The Dark Ruler released another dark blast, blowing up the last shield. A card glowed from Cody’s graveyard.

“By removing Neo-Spacian Guard from my Graveyard, all Battle Damage done to me becomes 0.”

“Very well then. Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler gets switched to Defense mode when it attacks twice.” Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler withdrew its dragon heads and crouched down (DEF 4000). “I end my turn by playing 1 card face-down.”

Think Cody. Think! What would Nick do at a time like this? He would risk everything on 1 draw. The Duel's not over until the last card is played. “My move.” The storm intensified. “I draw!” Cody drew a card and looked at it. Yes! I play the spell Level Draw, so I pay 500 Life Points and select a monster on the field and draw cards equal to half the level of the selected monster, so I choose Elemental Hero Divine Neos, so I draw 6 cards. Cody lost 500 Life Points (Cody 2100) as he drew 6 cards. “Now I play Mystical Space Typhoon, so I can destroy your Light Barrier.” A tornado appeared, Light Barrier was destroyed and the light around the area was destroyed.

“No! With “Light Barrier” gone-”

“My monsters’ effects are back. Now I Gemini Summon Elemental Hero S. Neos Alius.” The Neos Alius became even more sparkly. “And thanks to his effect, his name is treated as “Elemental Hero Star Neos”. Now I activate the effect of Elemental Hero Divine Neos: once per turn, by removing 1 “Neo-Spacian” monster from my Graveyard from play, his ATK increases by 500.” A small fairy’s body flew into Divine Neos’s (ATK 3500). “But that's not all, he gains the effect of the removed “Neo-Spacian” monster, so since I removed “Neo-Spacian Stardust Fairy”, so he gains 200 ATK and DEF for each card I control including cards in my hand, so he gains 1600 ATK.” Divine Neos gained a small green aura as his power increased (ATK 5100). “Next I equip Divine Neos with Galaxy Veil, so when he battles, he gains another 500 ATK and when he destroys a monster, you take damage equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster.” Divine Neos was surrounded by a multi-colored aura (ATK 5600). “Now, Elemental Hero Divine Neos, destroy her Arcana Force EX – The Dark Ruler.” Divine Neos released a radiant aura.

“I activate the trap Reversal of Fate, so I can select 1 “Arcana Force” monster I control, and its effect is treated as the opposite side of the coin, so “Arcana Force EX - The Dark Ruler” switches to its Tails effect.” The card above Dark Ruler got flipped turned upside-down. The Dark Ruler was then destroyed by the radiance, causing it to explode.

“Now you receive damage equal to your monster’s ATK points.” Divine Neos released another radiant blast (Destiny 4000).

“Now I activate “The Dark Ruler”’s Tails effect: if it's destroyed, I can destroy all cards on the field.” Its explosion caused the explosion of The Light Ruler and then all the cards on the entire field.

“That's just... What I was hoping for.”

“What?”

“I activate from my hand, the Quick-Play Spell Galaxy Reversal: when this card is activated, if a Fusion Fusion Summoned with “Elemental Hero Neos” or “Elemental Hero Star Neos” as a material is destroyed, I can Special Summon 1 “Elemental Hero Neos” or “Elemental Hero Star Neos” from my Deck, so I Special Summon Elemental Hero Star Neos.” A sparkly version of Elemental Hero Neos appeared (ATK 2500). “And not only that, since Galaxy Space is on the field, he gains 500 ATK and DEF. And thanks to Galaxy Reversal’s other effect, he gains 1000 ATK until the End Phase.” Star Neos received a large power boost (ATK 4000).

I guess my prediction... was wrong. You can change Destiny. Just like Jaden and John did.

“Now “Elemental Hero Star Neos” END THIS!!!” Star Neos flew over toward Destiny and karate-chopped her (Destiny 0). The storm stopped and everything cleared up. The announcer came back out to the arena.

“And the winner is... Cody Batey!” yelled the announcer. Cody walked over to Destiny and helped her up.

“Great Duel, but the Neo-Spacians still won the battle.”

“Yes, this battle, but they haven't won the war,” Destiny said and smiled. They walked off stage.

“Okay! Our next 2 challengers coming up are Rein Kuro and from Team Ultimate Kingdom, The Kingdom – Swordsman,” yelled the announcer.

“Alright. Here I go,” said Rein as he stepped onto the arena.

“Don’t lose, man,” yelled Nick. The swordsman stepped onto the arena and Rein and the Swordsman readied their duel disks.

“Alright! Duel...... Start!” yelled the announcer.

“Let’s Duel!” yelled the duelists.

“I draw!” the swordsman yelled as he drew a card. “I summon Kingdom – Mounted Knight.” A man in white armor with a sword and shield appeared riding a white armored horse. His shield had a picture of a building and the letters “Ult. K” under it (ATK 1600).

Oh great, Team Ultimate Kingdom uses the Kingdom cards! thought Kim. I’ll never forgive those people for turning John against me with the help of the Wicked Gods.

“Now I activate his effect: when he is Normal Summoned, by paying 1500 Life Points, I can Special Summon 1 “Kingdom” monster from my hand, so I Special Summon Kingdom - Swordsman.” A man who looked almost identical to the duelist, a man with white armor with the Ultimate Kingdom logo on the right side of his chest and a white sword, appeared (ATK 1500). The duelist lost some Life Points (Swordsman 6500). “Now I activate my effect: once per turn, I can Special Summon a Level 4 or lower “Kingdom” monster from my hand, so I Special Summon Kingdom – Jester Assistant in defense position.” A man in a white suit appeared. He simply knelt down and put his head down (DEF 1900). “I play 1 card face-down and end my turn.”

Wow, that’s a strong start for the Kingdom. How will this Rein kid stand up to the Kingdom’s assault?

“I draw!” yelled he white-haired boy as he drew a card. “I play the spell Double Summon, so I can summon twice this turn, so I summon Lunar-Smith-Pure Flame and Lunar Werewolf LV4”. A man in red clothes and a fiery temper and a little kid werewolf appeared (ATKs 1750 and 1600 respectively). “Now I play the Field Spell Wolf Forest-Canis Paradise, so all Warrior-type, Beast-type, and Beast-Warrior-type monsters gain 200 ATK and DEF. And yes, including your “Kingdom” monsters.” The area around them turned into a forest with meadow-like patches. Wolves ran around in the background. All the monsters on the field felt the power present in the field (Pure Flame ATK 1950, Werewolf LV4 ATK 1800, Mounted Knight ATK 1800, Swordsman ATK 1700, Jester’s Assistant DEF 2100). “Now Lunar-Smith-Pure Flame destroy his Kingdom – Swordsman.”

“I activate the trap Appearing Moat.” A large trench filled with water appeared. “Thuis card is activated when you declare an attack. I can negate the attack and end the Battle Phase. And after this card is activated, I can activate the Continuous Spell Kingdom – Moat from my Deck.”

“I play 1 card face-down and end my turn.”

“I draw.” He drew a card. “I summon Kingdom – Jester Imposter.” A man in a white suit with the Ultimate Kingdom logo and a white jester hat appeared. He had a smirk on his face though, as if he had something to hide (ATK 800, Tuner). “My Jester Imposter then lets me summon Kingdom – Court Jester from my hand.” A man in a white suit with the Ultimate Kingdom logo and a white jester hat appeared (DEF 300). Nobody really cared that their stats were also powered up by the field (ATK 1000 and DEF 500, respectively). “My Jester Imposter is treated as a Kingdom – Court Jester when on the field, so I tune my Jester Imposter (Level 2) to my Mounted Knight (Level 4) and Swordsman (Level 3).” The Jester Imposter turned into two green rings. The Mounted Knight turned into 4 stars and the swordsman 3. The 7 stars lined up inside the 2 green rings and it created a beam of light. As this was happening, the Swordsman duelist was chanting “To all peasants of this forsaken world, bow before the Ultimate Kingdom! Synchro Summon! Take flight! Kingdom – Dragon!” A giant white dragon with the Ultimate Kingdom logo on its stomach flew into the air. “Its original ATK is the total original ATK of the monsters used to Synchro Summon it.” The dragon roared (ATK 3900).

These people don’t play for fun, do they? thought Rein.

“Now Kingdom – Dragon destroy Lunar Werewolf LV4.” The dragon dove down and slashed at the kid werewolf with his razor-sharp white claws, but the werewolf remained intact (Rein 5900). “Why wasn’t your monster destroyed?”

“At the last minute, I discarded Lunar-Gardna, so “Lunar” monsters I control are not destroyed as a result of battle this turn.”

“Very well then. I end my turn at that.”

Kim just watched the duel with a terrified expression. “This is not good. Not good at all.”

“What is it?” asked Nick.

“Well, I know that Ultimate Kingdom Deck from my Dimension. My friend joined an organization that uses those cards, then he was taken over by them and started Dueling like some rouge Duelist.”

“But you were the only person to free him, were you?” asked another kid who looked like Nick, but it was still easy to tell them apart. Kim could sense a darker aura from this kid and his cards.

“Yes, but how did you know?”

“Me and Nick, we were controlled as well,” the Nick look-alike continued. “By one of the members on the Dark Signer team. Except our problem was much worse in some sorts, but then one of our friends freed us and he's the person you see up on the screen, Rein.”

“I kind of got rid of the last of it when I faced Haou,” said Nick. “But Rein was the real hero. And I can tell just by looking at him, he's not done just yet.”

“My move! I draw!” yelled Rein as he drew a card.

“I activate the effect of Kingdom – Moat. During my opponent’s Standby Phase, I choose a Type or Attribute and monsters of that quality can’t attack, so I choose EARTH.”

“Too bad that won’t work. I activate Mystical Space Typhoon to destroy your Moat. A tornado blew all the water away. The land reappeared. “I activate the effect of Lunar Werewolf LV4, so I send him to the Graveyard to Special Summon Lunar Werewolf LV6 from my Deck.” The werewolf grew up to a late teenager (ATK 2600). Now I activate my Counter Trap Wolf Parade: when this is activated, if I just summoned a “Lunar” monster, I can pay 3000 Life Points to special summon 2 “Lunar” monsters from my Extra Deck, so I special summon Lunar-Guardian-Dawn and Lunar-Guardian-Desert.” A werewolf with heavy light-colored armor and a werewolf with heavy sand-colored armor appeared (ATKs 2000 and 2400, respectively). And thanks to my field’s effect, they gain 200 ATK and DEF.” They felt the field’s power and the other wolves’ presence (ATKs 2200 and 2600, respectively). “Now I activate the effect of Lunar-Guardian-Dawn’s effect: once per turn, I can destroy 2 face-up cards, so I destroy your Dragon and your Jester’s Assistant.” The dragon and the kneeling man shattered into pieces. “Now Lunar-Smith-Pure Flame destroy his Kingdom – Court Jester.” The man with the fiery temper pulled out a fiery sword and slashed at the man in a jester hat. The fire destroyed the Jester. “Now I’ll have my other 3 monsters attack you directly!” The werewolves with heavy armor tackled the Swordsman and the teenage werewolf slashed at the Swordsman (Swordsman 0). The holograms faded.

“And the winner is Rein Kuro!” yelled the announcer. The audience cheered. Rein was about to run over to the Swordsman to congratulate him for trying, but he was already gone. Rein walked to the hallway.

“That was awesome man,” said Nick as Rein came back to the hallway.

“Thanks. But why was the deal about my opponent leaving so soon?”

“Beats me.”

Later, in a giant room in the Kaibadome where Team Dark Signer and Team Ultimate Kingdom were staying, Kingdom – Swordsman was awaiting his punishment. The Emperor approached him.

“You have failed us, Swordsman,” yelled the Emperor.

“Forgive me, your majesty.” The Swordsman bowed in respect. I tried the best I could.”

“You dare want me to show mercy?!” the Emperor raised his hand and was about to punch the Swordsman, but a hand blocked his fist.

“Come now, your majesty,” said a voice. “I’ve heard from a reliable source that after the first part of the tournament is complete, there will be a bracket for those who were defeated. Unfortunately, there will be only 1 match, but if Swordsman is chosen, he might be able to redeem himself.”

“Very well then, King,” said the Emperor. “You'll have one more chance to redeem yourself. If we ever want our plan to work, we'll need to be rid of Team Satellite for good.”

“Yes, your majesty.” The Swordsman walked to the main resting area.

“Be sure to win your match as well, Knight.”

“I'll make sure of that, your majesty,” said another voice.

“Nick and Rein then walked to the resting room.

“Nice duel, Rein,” said Alice.

“Yeah, dude. You really came through in the end,” said Cody.

“Thanks,” said Rein. At this time, a beautiful blond-haired girl, about nick’s age, wearing a white dress shirt with the Ultimate Kingdom logo on it and a white skirt walked past Kim. Kim could see the small light aura around thus girl. She walked to Nick.

“Can I help you?” asked Nick.

The kingdom girl’s eyes widened. “You’re perfect!” she yelled as she surprise-glomped Nick, who nearly feel over.

“Woah! Okay, you can let me go now.” The girl didn’t let go of him. “Alright, that’s enough. You can let me go now.” She still didn’t. “If you can hear me, say something!”

“Oh, sorry.” The girl let go. “I am the Ultimate Kingdom’s Princess, but you can call me Madeline.”

“Okay, Madeline. Like I said before, can I help you?”

“I want… you to marry me,” she said. Nick looked blank, another girl from Team Satellite Nick hangs out with suddenly looked angry, and everybody else within in both teams had a shocked look on their face, except for Mystery, who nobody could really tell because of his/her mask.

“Poor girl done lost her mind,” said Nick, confused and crazed.

“No. I mean it. I want you to marry me.”

“I'm being punk'd right now. I know it. Come on, drop the act and tell me where the video camera is.” He started pacing the ground, clearly about to go insane. The angry girl slapped Nick in the face. “Ouch! Thanks Rachel. I needed that.” He calmed down and approached the Kingdom girl again.

“Anyways, you two just met and you're way too young to get married,” said Rachel.

“Not really. You see, I met him a while back when he came to the Duel Monster Realm. Ever since then, I wanted to see him again and tell him straight out how I feel about him.”

Nick’s face had a look of recognition. “Oh yeah. Now I remember you. But I didn't think you were the Princess. Believe me. When I saw her, she was wearing clothes like one of the townspeople. She was kind of clumsy, so I helped her out a little.”

“So I’m guessing he helped you out a lot,” said Rachel.

“14 times really.”

“Oh… you, uh, counted.”

“Like I said, you're way too young for marriage.”

“The rule of Ultimate Kingdom states that the Princess can marry anyone she chooses.”

“But come on. Why me? What about Cody?”

“Eh.”

“Okay, harsh. But what about Rein?”

“Sorry, no.”

“Alright, but what about Link?”

“Hello, pretty lady,” says a guy with glasses similar to the glasses Carly wears.

“Okay. You're not helping this situation one bit.”

“No. Not him. It's you I love. And I'll Duel for you if I have to.”

“Next up is, from Team Satellite, Rachel Sharpton, and from Team Ultimate Kingdom, it's the Kingdom - Princess, Madeline,” yelled the announcer.

“Looks like you'll get to Duel after all,” said Rachel.

“Then, how about we make this interesting?”

“What do you suggest?”

“If you should win, I'll stop trying to get Nick to marry me. But if I should win, well,” she blushed and then said “I'll convince the director to postpone the tournament for a while so me and Nick can be together in Holy Matrimony.”

“There is no way Rachel would agree to a deal like-”

“You're on.”

“Why must you put me through these things?” asked Nick. “Why?”

Rachel touched Nick’s cheek. “Just have faith in me. Alright?”

Nick sighed. “Alright. Go on out there and win, alright?”

“Don't worry, my darling. I will!” yelled Madeline. Rachel and Madeline walked onto the stage.

“Get a clue.”

“Alright, are you two duelists ready?” asked the announcer.

“Ready,” said Rachel.

“Always ready,” said Madeline.

“All right then. Duel start!” Rachel and Madeline each drew 5 cards.

“I’ll go first. I draw!” Madeline yelled as she drew a card. “I summon Kingdom – Mounted Knight.” A knight with white armor and a shield with the Ultimate kingdom logo and a white armored horse appeared (ATK 1600). “Now I activate his effect: when he's summoned, by paying 1500 Life Points, I can Special Summon 1 "Kingdom" monster from my hand, so I summon yours truly, Kingdom – Princess.” Madeline lost some Life Points (Madeline 6250) and a blond-haired girl that looked almost identical to Madeline in a white dress that looked like a wedding dress with the Ultimate Kingdom logo on it appeared (ATK 2100). Madeline looked towards Nick. “That’s the dress I'm going to be wearing for our wedding, darling!”

“Lord, what did I do to deserve this kind of punishment?” said Nick.

“He's not going to marry you!” said Rachel.

“A little jealous are you?” asked Madeline.

“No!” Rachel yelled, blushing. “Just end your turn already!”

“Not yet. I activate my effect: once per turn, by removing a card in my hand from play, I regain half the Life Points I lost this turn.” A card vanished from Madeline’s hand as she regained half the Life Points she lost from the knight’s effect (Madeline 7250). “I place 1 card face-down and end my turn.”

“I draw!” Rachel drew a card. “I summon Cyber Angel – Sarah!” A purple-armored angel woman with a single-edged sword appeared (ATK 1500). “Now her effect activates: she gains 500 ATK for every Level 5 or higher monster on the field.” The hilt of the sword glowed in response to the princess, raising the purple angel’s ATK (ATK 2000). “Now I activate her 2nd effect: once per turn, if there is a Level 5 or higher monster on my opponent’s side of the field, I can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Cyber Angel” monster from my Deck, so I Special Summon Cyber Angel – Yumi.” A green armored angel girl with a wooden staff appeared (ATK 1400). “Now her effect activates, so she gains 300 ATK for every Level 4 or lower monster on my opponent’s side of the field.” The staff glowed slightly in response to the knight, raising the green angel’s ATK (ATK 1700). Now I activate her 2nd effect: if you control a Level 4 or lower monster, it can attack directly, so Yumi attack her directly.” The green girl charged towards Madeline.

“I activate the trap card I removed from play known as Kingdom Rat Trap. By placing it in my Graveyard, I can activate its effect. If a non-“Kingdom” monster attacks, it is destroyed.” A giant rat trap appeared and snapped on the green angel, destroying it.

“In that case, Cyber Angel – Sarah destroy her Kingdom – Mounted Knight.” The purple angel girl charged toward the white-armored knight.

“I activate my face-down Appearing Moat. When this card is activated, it negates your attack and ends the Battle Phase, then after activation, I can activate the Continuous Spell Kingdom – Moat from my deck.” A giant moat appeared.

“I play 1 card face-down and end my turn.”

“I draw,” yelled Madeline as she drew a card. “I play the Spell Call the Guards. By paying 2000 Life Points, I can activate the Continuous Spell Kingdom – Guards from my deck.” A bunch of guards with bows and arrows lined up behind Madeline’s monsters (Madeline 5250). “Now I activate my effect again: I remove from play 1 card in my hand.” Once again, a card in her hand disappeared and she regained some Life Points (Madeline 6250). “Now I tribute my Mounted Knight to summon my brother, Kingdom – Prince.” The Mounted Knight turned into a glowing circle and, out of the circle, came a brown-haired boy about the same age as the princess in a white shirt with the Ultimate Kingdom logo, a white cape, and black pants and black shoes (ATK 2200). “Now I activate the effect of my Kingdom – Guards: once per turn, I can destroy 1 face-up monster on the field, so I destroy your Cyber Angel – Sarah.” The guards shot their arrows at the girl, destroying her. “Now Kingdom – Prince and Kingdom – Princess attack her directly!” The prince drew out a sword and the princess drew out a dagger. The princess stabbed Rachel in the stomach and the prince slashed at Rachel (Rachel 3700). “I end my turn.”

“Not yet. I activate the trap Give & Receive. When this card is activated, I gain half the Life Points I lost this turn and you take damage equal to half the Life Points I lost this turn.” Rachel and Madeline gained and lost Life Points accordingly (Rachel 5850, Madeline 4100). “It’s my turn now, so I draw!” Rachel drew a card.

“I activate the effect of Kingdom – Moat. During my opponent’s Standby Phase, I can choose a Type or Attribute and monsters of that quality can’t attack, so I choose the LIGHT attribute.”

“In that case, I summon Cyber Angel – Karin.” A red-armored angel girl with wings appeared (ATK 500, Tuner). “Now her effect activates: she gains 300 ATK for every Level 3 or higher monster you control.” The angel’s wings reacted to the prince and princess (ATK 1100). “Now I activate her 2nd effect: once per turn, I can Special Summon 1 Level 4 or lower “Cyber Angel” from my Graveyard, so I Special Summon back Cyber Angel – Yumi.” The green angel with the staff appeared again (ATK 1400). “Now I tune Cyber Angel – Karin (Level 2) with Cyber Angel – Yumi (Level 3).” The red angel turned into 2 green rings and the green one turned into 3 white stars. The stars lined up inside the rings and created a flash of light. As this was happening, Rachel chanted “People from the outskirts of the sky, please heed my wish and grace me with your light! Synchro Summon! Shine! Cyber Angel – Hirai!” When the light disappeared, there was a dark blue angel with a trident (ATK 2200). “Now her effect activates: she gains 300 ATK for every Level 5 or higher monster you control.” The trident reacted to the prince and princess, increasing the blue angel’s ATK (ATK 2800). “Now Cyber Angel – Hirai destroy her Kingdom – Princess.” The blue angel flew down and stabbed the princess with the trident, destroying the princess (Madeline 3400). “I play 1 card face-down and end my turn.”

“Yes! Go Rachel!” yelled Nick in the rest area.

“Dude, calm down,” said Cody. “She hasn’t won yet.”

“But if she does win, the Princess might need a shoulder to cry on,” said Chris. Destiny was quite angry.

A brown-haired boy about Nick’s age who looked almost exactly like the Kingdom – Prince monster card approached Nick. “You!”

“I’m guessing you’re her brother,” said Nick.

“Just stay away from her or I'll have to take you down myself. My name is Malcolm. Don't forget it.” He walked away.

“Stay away from her? She needs to stay away from me. Why am I always caught into something like this?”

“Maybe you're too nice,” said Leo.

“There's nothing wrong with being nice, Leo,” said Luna. “Now let's just watch the Duel and see how Rachel does.”

“You're gonna pay for that. Nick will be mine. I draw.” Madeline drew a card. “I activate the spell card I removed from play known as Kingdom – Renaissance. By placing it in my Graveyard and paying 1000 Life Points, I can Special Summon 1 “Kingdom” monster from my Graveyard. Now I revive Kingdom – Princess.” The princess was resurrected (Madeline 2400). “Now I play the spell Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 cards.” Madeline drew 2 cards. “Now I play another Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 more cards.” Madeline drew 2 cards.”

“I activate the Continuous Trap Cyber Angel Staff: when this card is activated, it becomes an Equip Spell Card and I equip it to Cyber Angel – Hirai.” A staff fell into the blue angel’s hands.

“Now I activate my effect, so I remove 1 card from my hand from play.” One of Madeline’s cards disappeared (Madeline 2900). “Now I equip Kingdom – Prince with Lightning Sword and Fairy Meteor Crush. Now he’s 800 ATK stronger and can inflict piercing damage.” The prince’s sword started to release bolts of electricity (ATK 3000). “Now I activate the effect of Kingdom – Guards, so I destroy Cyber Angel – Hirai.” The guards shot their arrows at the blue angel, destroying it.

“I activate the effect of Cyber Angel Staff: when the equipped monster s destroyed and it is sent to the Graveyard, you take damage equal to the ATK of the destroyed monster.” The staff flew towards Madeline and hit her, crumbling to dust afterward (Madeline 100). “Now I activate the effect of Cyber Angel – Hirai: when she is destroyed, I can Special Summon the Material Monsters from my Graveyard, so come back Cyber Angel – Karin and Cyber Angel – Yumi.” The red angel and the blue angel appeared again (DEFs 500 and 1400, respectively). “Now Kingdom – Prince destroy her Cyber Angel – Karin.” The prince shot lightning bolts from his sword, destroying the red angel and striking Rachel (Rachel 3350). “Now Kingdom – Princess destroy her Cyber Angel – Yumi.” The princess stabbed the green angel, destroying it. “I end my turn.”

“I’m sorry, but this duel is over. I draw!” Rachel drew a card. “I play the Ritual Spell Machine Angel Ritual.” A silver chapel appeared around them for only a second.

“So I send a monster my Graveyard that total Level 6 to Ritual Summon Cyber Angel Idaten.” A monster disappeared from Rachel’s hand and a purple angel with purple hair and black clothes appeared (ATK 1600). “Now I activate her effect, so I return a Spell card from my Graveyard to my hand.” The Machine Angel Ritual spell returned to her hand. “Now I activate the spell Angel Flash: when this card is activated, you take 300 damage for every “Cyber Angel” on the field. This duel is over.” The purple angel released a light (Madeline 0).

“And the winner is Rachel!” yelled the announcer. Rachel walked into the hallway to find Nick standing there.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” said Nick.

“Don't mention it. It's just... I don't want to lose anyone again.”

“I know.”

“Hold on!” yelled Madeline, walking off the stage.

“What is it now? We had a deal.”

“I know. I may not get to marry Nick, but at least I can still get my first kiss.” Madeline ran towards Nick. Nick closed his eyes and braced himself for impact. He felt someone kiss him and he opened his eyes. It wasn’t Madeline who had kissed him, but Rachel.

“No!” yelled Madeline.

Now THAT reminds me of me and John, even more than Alice and Nick.

“Whoa. Wow, Rachel, I… didn’t know you felt that way before.”

“I was only stopping her from kissing you.” Rachel then whispered in Nick’s ear, “And by the way, this was my first kiss also.”

Nick looked away. “Heh heh heh,” he laughed, embarrassed.

The Emperor arrived at the scene. “You also have failed me, Madeline.”

“I'm sorry, your majesty. I tried my best not to fail you.”

“Enough of your excuses!” He threw a punch at Madeline. Madeline closed her eyes, but Nick blocked the Emperor’s punch.

“Look. I may not know what goes on in your team, but I do know you don't hit a defenseless girl. If you do, you're gonna have to answer to me.”

“Grr,” growled the Emperor as he walked away.

“Why would you defend someone who's on a different team?” asked Madeline.

“I don't care whose team you're on. You shouldn't have to live with that kind of abuse. You should live your own life. A life without people like him.”

“Thank you. Thank you.” She hugged Nick and started crying.

“Come on now. Don't cry.”

Madeline sniffled. “You're lucky to have someone who cares about you Rachel.”

“Nick protects the people he cares about. Even if they do get on his nerves or hate him,” said Rachel. “That's why he protected you. He cares about you also.”

“Thank you Nick.”

“Don't mention it.”

This is rather strange. All the Kingdom members so far have had light auras, yet the Emperor had a dark aura. What does this mean?

Meanwhile, a few meters away...

“Why don’t I get any screen time anymore?” asked Mystery.

“I feel your pain,” said Hunter.

“Alright, next up we have from Team Mystery, Hunter and from the Team Dark Signer, Chris Davis who has the mark of the Monkey,” yelled the announcer.

“Okay, strike that. Well, here I go. Wish me luck out there, okay?”

“Go get him, Hunter!” yelled Chris Anderson. Hunter arrived in the arena and a circle of purple flame appeared around the duelists.

“Whoa! Uh... okay. Are you two ready?” asked the announcer.

“Ready!” said Hunter as he readied his Duel Disk.

“I am also ready,” said Chris D. as he readied his Duel Disk.

“Alright. Duel… Start!”

“Let's Duel!” yelled Hunter and Chris D.

“I’ll start this duel off! I draw!” yelled Hunter as he drew a card. Awesome! And thanks to this dimension’s ruling on this card, it’s even more awesome! “I activate the quick-play spell Scapegoat, so I summon 4 Sheep Tokens to my field.” 4 circular sheep of different colors appeared (DEFs 0). “Now I tribute 2 of them to summon Predatory Beast Rex.” Two sheep turned into a colorful portal and a giant dinosaur with huge claws appeared (ATK 3200). Now I activate his effect: when he’s summoned, I can tribute monsters of a lower level and increase its ATK by 400 times the total levels of the monsters I tributed, so I tribute my last 2 Sheep Tokens, so it gains 800 ATK.” Two sheep disappeared and the dinosaur roared (ATK 4000). I play 1 card face-down and end my turn. Come on Dark Signer, show me what you got!”

“I draw.” Chris D. drew a card. “I play the field spell Altar of the Zodiac Beasts.” A giant altar for sacrifices appeared below their feet. “Next I play the spell Gift of the Zodiac, so I can Special Summon Zodiac Beast Tokens equal to the number of “Zodiac Beast” monsters in my hand.” He revealed 2. “And since there’s 2, I can Special Summon 2 Zodiac Beast Tokens.” 2 small creatures with a Pisces symbol on their heads appeared (DEFs 0).

Oh no! Kim thought. He has everything needed to summon an Earthbound Immortal. And on his first turn!

“Now I tribute both of them to summon forth my great beast. Come Forth! Earthbound Immortal Cusillu.” The two creatures formed into a capsule. Then capsule broke, releasing a pillar of light. When it disappeared, there was Earthbound Immortal Cusillu (ATK 2800).

“So what? Your beast isn't powerful enough to stop my beast.”

“Now I play the spell Triple Summon. Since I already Normal Summoned a monster this turn, I can summon 2 more times, so I summon Zodiac Beast – Sheep and Zodiac Beast – Dog.” A sheep with a Cancer symbol and a dog with a Sagittarius symbol appeared (ATKs 500 and 800, respectively).

Union monsters, huh?

“Now I equip Zodiac Beast – Sheep and Zodiac Beast – Dog to Earthbound Immortal – Cusillu.” The dog turned into a Sagittarius symbol and the sheep turned itself into a Cancer symbol and both implanted themselves onto Cusillu.

“Wait a minute. Monsters can be equipped with only 1 monster at a time.”

“While Altar of the Zodiac Beast is on the field, that rule doesn’t apply to “Zodiac Beast” Union monsters. Now Earthbound Immortal Cusillu, attack him directly.” Cusillu raised its fist.

“I activate the trap Eye of the Predator, so you can only attack “Predatory Beast” monsters. You must be the dumbest of the Dark Signers.” The dinosaur charged toward Cusillu. Cusillu redirected its fist at the dinosaur. The dinosaur went straight through Cusillu (Hunter 6800). “What the!? Why did I take damage!”

“It’s my Zodiac Beast – Sheep’s effect: while equipped to a face-up Beast-type monster, if the equipped monster attacks or is attacked by a monster with higher ATK, the difference is dealt to my opponent as damage instead of to me. And thanks to Zodiac Beast – Dog’s effect, while equipped, the equipped monster isn't destroyed by battle or a card effect. I end my turn.”

“Hunter,” said Kim softly in the rest area. “This is his first Dark Signer fight and he’s already losing.”

“Those Zodiac Beast cards are no joke,” said Chris.

“They only seem to focus on being equipped to a Beast-type monster and the equipped monster gaining their effects,” said Nick. “But there is one flaw in his strategy. Sooner or later he's gonna run out of space for his Spell & Trap Card Zones and his Monster Card Zones if he continues this strategy of his.”

“I draw!” Hunter yelled as he drew a card. “I play the continuous spell Sheep Farm.” Once per turn, I can Special Summon 1 Sheep Token.” A round, red, circular sheep appeared (DEF 0). Now I play the continuous spell Cycle of Life. Now I summon Predatory Beast Archfiend.” A demonic winged creature appeared (ATK 1800). Now I activate his effect, so I tribute my Sheep Token and my Predatory Beast Archfiend gains 200 ATK.” The sheep disappeared (ATK 2000). “Now I activate the effect of Cycle of Life: when a monster is tributed by the effect of a “Predatory Beast” monster, I can Special Summon a “Beast Prey” monster from my Deck, so I Special Summon “Beast Prey Mink” in Defense Position.” A small mink appeared (DEF 0). But I can't attack his Earthbound Immortal, because, if I do, I'm the one who'll take the damage. And if I don't and he attacks me with it, I'm done for either way. But maybe there's another way. “I play Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 cards.” Hunter drew 2 cards and looked at them. Yes! “I play 2 cards face-down and end my turn.”

“I draw!” Chris D. drew a card. “I summon Zodiac Beast – Horse.” A horse with a Virgo symbol on it appeared (ATK 700). “Now I equip it to Earthbound Immortal Cusillu.” The horse turned into a Virgo symbol and attached itself to Cusillu. “Now I activate its effect: while equipped, once per turn, I can select 1 monster you control. If your monster has higher ATK than my equipped monster, I gain LP equal to the difference, so I select your Predatory Beast Rex, so I gain 1200 LP.” The Virgo symbol glowed a bit as Chris D. recovered health (Chris D. 9200). “Now Earthbound Immortal Cusillu attack him directly.” Cusillu raised its fist.

“I activate the Continuous Trap Predator vs. Prey. While this card is n the field, you can only attack either “Predatory Beast” monsters or “Beast Prey” monsters, and I choose “Beast Prey” monsters, so you can only attack my Beast Prey Mink.”

“Very well.” Cusillu slammed down his fist on the mink, easily destroying it. “I end my turn.”

“During the End Phase Beast Prey Mink was destroyed, I can Special Summon as many Beast Prey Mink Tokens as possible to my field in Attack Position. So that's 3.” Three smaller minks appeared (ATK 0).

“Hunter is doing well now,” commented Nick in the resting area. “I just hope he can pull out a win against one of them.”

“I hope he does,” said Kim, quite worried.

“I draw.” Hunter drew a card. “I play another Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 cards.” Hunter drew 2 more cards. “I activate my second face-down Compulsory Evacuation Device, so I return Predatory Beast Rex to my hand.” A small machine somehow sucked up the giant dinosaur and blasted it away. The card appeared in Hunter’s hand. “Now I activate the effect of Sheep Farm, so I Special Summon 1 Sheep Token.” A small round sheep appeared (DEF 0). “Now I tribute Predatory Beast Archfiend and my Sheep Token to summon back Predatory Beast Rex.” The sheep and imp turned into colorful circles. The two circles formed into a portal through which came a giant dinosaur with big claws
(ATK 3200). “Now I activate its effect, so I tribute all my Mink Tokens. With their Levels combined to make 12, its ATK is increased by 4800.” The minks disappeared and the dinosaur released a huge roar (ATK 8000).

“What, 8000!? There must be some mistake!”

“Now I activate the effect of Cycle of Life, so I Special Summon 2 Beast Prey Minks and Beast Prey Electric Eel.” Two minks and an eel appeared (DEFs 0 and ATK 1200, respectively). “Now I’m tuning my Beast Prey Electric Eel (Level 3, Tuner) with one of my Minks (Level 4) to SynchroSummon Predatory Beast Pterodactyl.” The eel turned into 3 stars, which turned into 3 green rings. One of the minks turned into 4 stars. The green rings lined themselves up and the stars aligned themselves up inside the rings. A flash of light appeared. When the light disappeared, there was a giant pterodactyl (ATK 2400). “Now I activate its effect: when this card is Synchro Summoned, its ATK increase by 400 times the combined level of the monsters used to Synchro Summon this card, so since their combined level is 7, it gains 2800 ATK.” The pterodactyl roared (ATK 5200). “Now I play the quick-play spell Mystical Space Typhoon, so I can get rid of your Zodiac Beast – Sheep union monster.” A tornado appeared, wiping the Cancer mark off of Cusillu. “Now Predatory Beast Pterodactyl attack his Cusillu.” The pterodactyl attempted to bite Cusillu, but it phased through it (Chris D. 6800). “I know – thanks to your Zodiac Beast – Dog’s effect, Earthbound Immortal Cusillu can’t be destroyed in battle, but there is still battle damage. Now Predatory Beast Rex attack Earthbound Immortal Cusillu.” The dinosaur charged through Cusillu (Chris D. 2600). “I end my turn. How does that feel, Dark Signer?! There's more where that came from if you mess with me again.”

“Hmph. Such big words coming from a worthless child.”

“Something doesn't feel right,” said Kim.

“Don't worry, Kim,” said Nick.

“Yeah. Hunter just made a come from behind lead,” said Chris Anderson. “One more attack and that other Chris is finished.”

“My turn. I draw!” Chris D. drew a card. “I activate one of the effects of Altar of the Zodiac Beasts: once per turn, if a “Zodiac Beast” card was destroyed and sent to the Graveyard, I can equip 1 “Zodiac Beast” card from my Deck to 1 face-up Beast-type monster, so I equip Zodiac Beast – Ox to Earthbound Immortal Cusillu.” An ox appeared on the altar, but it quickly turned into a Taurus symbol and attached to Cusillu. “Now I play the spell Zodiac Draw, so I can draw cards equal to the number of “Zodiac Beast” cards equipped to one monster, so I can draw 3 cards.” Chris D. drew 3 cards. “Now I play the spell Zodiac Union, so I can equip a “Zodiac Beast” monster in my Deck to a Beast-type monster on my field, so I choose Zodiac Beast – Rabbit to equip to Earthbound Immortal Cusillu.” A rabbit appeared and quickly turned into a Gemini symbol and attached to Cusillu. “Now I play the spell Pot of Greed, so I draw 2 cards.” Chris D. drew 2 more cards. “Next, I also play the quick-play spell Mystical Space Typhoon, so I can destroy your Predator vs. Prey Continuous Trap.” A tornado destroyed the image of the card. “Now I play the spell Revival of the Zodiac Beast, so I can Special Summon 1 “Zodiac Beast” monster from my Graveyard, so I revive Zodiac Beast – Sheep.” The sheep with the Cancer symbol appeared (ATK 500).”

“No!”

“Yes! Now I equip Zodiac Beast – Sheep to Earthbound Immortal Cusillu.” The sheep turned into a Cancer symbol and attached itself to Cusillu. “Now Earthbound immortal Cusillu attack his Predatory Beast Rex.” Cusillu charged toward the dinosaur and gave a very swift punch toward the dinosaur. It bounced off the dinosaur (Hunter 2600).

“What happened? Cusillu’s speed has gone to an all-time high.”

“Since he’s equipped with Zodiac Beast – Rabbit, his speed increases, and he gets to attack twice. Earthbound Immortal Cusillu, attack him directly and END THIS!” Cusillu raised its fist and slammed it onto the ground. An earthquake shook the arena and covered Hunter in rock (Hunter 0).

“Unfortunately, the winner is Chris Davis of Team Dark Signer,” said the announcer, disappointed. The crowd yelled at the Dark Signers.

“Be thankful the mark of the monkey wasn’t formed in the arena, otherwise yoursoul would’ve been captured,” said Chris D.

Hunter had the strength to get up. “I may be down.... But that doesn't mean I'm giving up here. Now that I know what your Deck is capable of, I'll get stronger in order to beat it. Our fight isn't over here, Dark Signer.” Chris D. just looked back and walked away.